Sunday, April 13, 2008

In Jakarta: Feb. 28, 2008 (Of movie theaters and Big Macs)

I met with Fitri at the super fancy MacDonald’s yesterday. It was very nice to see her face to face after all of this time. We get along very well and we made lots of possible plans for the future. I did nearly drown (don't worry, not really) on the way there though. It has been raining like crazy here every afternoon, bur I am too determined and cheap to take a taxi when I can walk somewhere. Of course when we were scheduled to meet it was raining the hardest yet, but I had to go since she had a letter for me to give to forestry and she was leaving for Malaysia the next day. I started out alright, pants rolled up, dodging the deepest puddles and hoping not to get drenched by passing cars on a way-too narrow street. But then I started running out of non-flooded options. I was proud to make one slightly harrowing leap over a drainage canal. Eventually a man running as food stall flagged me down and kindly forced me to wait for the rain to stop and to drink some (te manis) hot sweet tea. He would not even let me pay and we chatted for a while, so it was not awkward.

The new research permit office does live up to the old one's standards. In some ways they have exceeded them; instead of asking for copies they just scan everything, they email promptly, and everyone is young and happy (at least for the moment). They also gave me a new and very spiffy research permit ID with (yes that's right) a lovely red-background photo of myself. The only problem I have had is that the boss was not in until 2 pm on Tuesday, so I lost a precious day from the week and have to get an extension from immigration since I will not make it to Lampung in the 7 days they gave me at the airport. I was hoping to finish up at PHKA on Monday, but when I dropped everything off yesterday they said "maybe Tuesday" and (of course) to call. They also refused to write down my number. I am pretty sure that it ticks them off even more when you know their system and have everything ready. That is probably how more steps are added. It is clearly an evolutionary arms race...what do you think, is there a paper here?

At the immigration office (to which the taxi driver had to stop and ask for directions 4 times), I saw another westerner and felt that I had to stop and say hi. He was a nice cultural anthropologist from Stanford named Bart. We shared a taxi and talked anthropological theory on the way back to central Jakarta. We both had not eaten lunch yet, so we went to a noodle place in the super fancy Plaza Indonesia mall. He felt it was his duty to show me around. We looked at the movie theater, which was pretty crazy. There are too levels, like classes on planes. The fancier "Prestige" class has its own special entrance, fully reclining leather seats with massage and center compartments with blankets, and a full bar. The cheaper (about $2.80 USD) theaters also have large reclining seats with tons of leg room and a bigger screen and better sound than in the US. Of course, I did not actually watch a movie there, but the tour was interesting. I am more of a pirated DVDs on the street kind of girl.

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