Balikpapan

Daddy found out yesterday that he is going to Balikpapan for a little over a month! It was for 3.5 weeks but yesterday evening he found out that his stay had been extended by a week. Looks like Mommy and kids will be settling into our new life in Jakarta without Daddy for little while.

Mommy is thinking about booking flights to Balikpapan for Spring Break. The tickets are rather expensive considering it is an in country flight and not that long of one either. Mommy needs to book the tickets today if we are going to go.

Yesterday night we went shopping for necessary household items that do not come with the furnished apartment like laundry baskets, hangers, etc. This morning before Daddy takes off for Balikpapan, we are going to do some grocery shopping and a few other errands. Mommy can walk to grocery stores, but it is still a little far for Katelyn to go and she always wants to be carried.

The thing that Mommy is most concerned about is getting to places and back using taxis. The taxi drivers never know how to get to the apartments that we are living in. They always miss the exit and Mommy is not sure how to redirect them. Maybe Mommy needs a crash course in giving directions in Indonesian...sigh. The taxi drivers also don't seem to be able to find the Church so Mommy is a little nervous about taking the kids to church on her own too. Being lost in Jakarta doesn't sound like fun.

Anyway, that's the big news for the day. We just got here and Daddy is leaving for a month. This should be an interesting few weeks.

New Apartment

We were able to move into permanent housing this last saturday. Mommy and Daddy were orginally told that we would have to stay in permanent housing for at least a month maybe longer. We are all very happy about being able to move into an apartment so quickly.

The apartment is nice. The one Mommy and Daddy liked orginally was out of the company's allowed housing budget. Luckily, the unit we are in now became available and is almost exactly like the one we liked orginally minus brand new floors and new furniture. The apartment did have a couple of issues. Daddy had to keep calling management to have them fix various things from non-working lights and plumbing issues to no internet and no hot water. Pretty much all of the issues have now been resolved.

After moving in on saturday, Mommy and Daddy took the kids on a walk to explore the area around the apartment. We walked to Pacific Place Mall and had lunch at Wendy's. Then we went to the basement of the mall and picked up a few groceries at Kem Chicks. Most of the malls have a grocery store in the basement. We took a taxi back to the apartment since the kids were really tired.

Fried chicken and ball of rice



View from one of 4 balconies at the apartment



On a crossover bridge on the way to the mall

First Day of School...Again!

Mommy and Daddy took Joseph to Pattimura Elementary School today. Joseph had another 1st day of Kindergarten. Mommy almost cried. Joseph was very upset this morning and did not want to go to school. His teacher is Mrs. Gamage and she seems so super duper nice! The kids in his class are a mixture of ethnicities. Mommy hopes that Joseph will learn to love his new school.

This week was Indonesian week at the school so there were activities all week related to Indonesia. This morning there was a concert at the school with a local band. The kids seemed to enjoy that. Mommy is glad that Joseph is going to a smaller campus. The school is only for K-5th or 6th grade. The entire school was at the concert and it really wasn't that large of a gathering.

Lunch is 25,000 rupiah or the equivalent of $2.50. It's actually more than he was paying for lunch at public school in Texas. Joseph gets his choice of Asian or Western food so Mommy thinks that he will find something he likes. If not, Daddy bought Joseph a new lunch box so that he can bring his lunch if he would rather.

Mrs. Gamage sent Mommy a picture of Joseph in P.E. He still seems a little anxious, but definitely much happier than he was this morning. Mommy is about to go and pick Joseph up from school.

Long Flight

We flew on Singapore Airlines from Houston to Jakarta. Mommy was worried about how to get a ridiculous number of bags and 3 kids to the baggage counter. We ended up paying one of the skycap guys to haul our luggage to the baggage counter. All the bags were accepted without any overweight fees. Mommy was relieved. They also allowed all of our carry-on baggage.

The first leg of the flight was from Houston to Moscow. In Moscow, we got off the plane and had to go through security again only to get on the same plane about 1.5 hrs. after we got off. The flight then went on to Singpore. The total flight time from Houston to Singapore was approximately 25 hrs. The second flight from Singapore to Jakarta was less than 2 hours.

The kids did really well on the flight. Mommy and Daddy were quite impressed. The Singapore Airlines employees were super nice to the kids. They got all sorts of toys and things to help keep them occupied. The airline food was also pretty good all things considered. We were all able to sleep a little on the flight. Unfortunately, the kids seem to be immune to Dramamine. We gave them all some Dramamine with dinner and they only slept a couple of hours. Mommy and Daddy were hoping they would sleep all night.

We are now all suffering from jet lag. We have also been super busy since arriving, but Mommy will save that for another post.

Here are some pictures from our journey from Houston to Jakarta.



Ready for the big trip!





At the Moscow Airport

At the Singapore Airport

Finally made it to Jakarta, Indonesia!

Goodbye Sushi

Since we are moving to Indonesia, we had to find a new home for our dog Sushi. Sushi has been a huge part of our lives for the past 3 years. She was always there...always eager to greet us and to shower us with affection. We probably took her for granted. Now that she has gone to a new home, we are left with an obvious void in our family.

The kids have asked about Sushi almost daily. They are wanting to look at pictures or view videos of her. Even our little Nu-Nu asks to see pictures of Sushi. She says, "Sushi went bye bye".

Mommy worried alot about finding Sushi a new home. Through the help of some friends, we found a lovely family to take Sushi. Sushi now has 5 little ones to play with and a new Mommy and Daddy. She seems to have adjusted well. We are all so happy that Sushi has a loving new home.

Mommy put together a slideshow of our time with Sushi. It's our little tribute to a part of our family. Mommy will leave Sushi's picture up on the blog. She'll always be one of Barker's Babies.

Taste of Indonesia

This morning we decided to head out to the Houston Indonesian Consulate. Daddy had heard that on saturdays there are vendors that sell Indonesian food at the Consulate. We got a variety of food to try. It was all very good although the kids thought the food was a little bit too spicy for their tastes. We even got to try some dessert. The people were all so very friendly. Daddy even spoke some Indonesian with the vendors. We also went to Chinatown and looked around for a bit. Joseph said he really liked Chinatown. Mommy thinks the kids will enjoy living in S.E. Asia.

Here are some pics from our little cultural adventure:

New Toys

Daddy bought Mommy a new camera and laptop since we are about to embark on a new adventure overseas. Apparently electronics such as laptops are 30-40% more expensive in Indonesia. Mommy thought they would be less expensive since many electronics are manufactured in S.E. Asia. But, since that is not the case, we decided that we had better make the purchases here in the U.S. Mommy has been wanting a digital slr for a very long time. After looking at a lot of cameras and reading a lot of reviews, Mommy decided on the Nikon d3100. Mommy likes it because 1) it is very light compared to a lot of other digital slr cameras so it would be good for travel 2) the menus and buttons are easy to navigate and very intuitive and 3) the camera records video in HD at 1080p.

The new computer makes uploading the pictures a breeze. Mommy is too spoiled with her new toys. Mommy has snapped one too many pictures over the last few days since our little Nu-Nu told Mommy to "leave her alone" when she saw the camera today...ha ha.

Here are some fun pictures that Mommy took with the new camera.