General feature;
We live in a 5 bedroom-3 bathroom-2 living room-dining and kitchen room house which belongs to Aji’s parents. We share the house with Aji’s twin sister—Aunty Evi, and her husband—Uncle Levi and their daughter—Alexa plus the baby sitter—Mbak Nur, plus the servant—mbak Tila.Since we arrive, there are also Mbak Anis, the baby sitter for Akira and Bik Onah –the servant to cook and do the house chores.It’s a full house!!
Let’s see hoe each of us coping with Jakarta!
Aji Sandy :
For the first three days in Jakarta, he indulged himself with SLEEPING. He has not started working but he reads more books, more magazines, watches more Holywood movies from DVDs , eats rice less but more snacks. He starts practicing Aikido every Saturday and Sunday at the Dojo nearby eventhough it is different style they have there.
Wisnu :
Routine activities change a bit. Now he wakes up a little late (at 8 not at 7), has a little breakfast, takes a bath twice a day, takes his nap at around 3-5 pm, dinner at 7, goes to bed at 9.30 (used to be at 7.30)
He has a friend to play with—Alexa and we should say a competitor to argue and fight with. Every now and then we could hear one of them shouting “NO” or “DON’T” or “IT’S MINE” or “DON’T HIT” and they end up crying. The funny thing is that they will start looking for one another and seem to forget that they just have a fight.
For no clear reason, Wisnu often cries when it comes to the bath time. He will walk on his tiptoe in the bathroom (perhaps because the floor is wet ) and refuse to go in as he will say “NO , it’s the toilet”. Our guess is that he expects the bathroom to be separated with the toilet like in Yokohama and has dry floor. The thing is we can not renovate the bathroom only for Wisnu.
Akira:
He is in the good care of our baby sitter, Anis. As soon as he wakes up, Anis is ready to attend to his needs. There are also some changes for Akira. Now he sits on his high chair and watches the Baby School VCD in his meal time. He takes a bath twice a day, eats more and drinks milk less. He has many people surrounding him :besides Anis—the baby sitter, there are Bik Onah and Mbak Tila (our servants) and Mbak Nur (Alexa’s baby sitter) to play with Akira. Of course ibu is still around to play with (but not changing the diapers anymore!)
Ibu :
Life begins again to Ibu. From the first day of our arrival, ibu goes out of the house—seeing her bestfriend : Wawa Fia. The following days, there are always things to do which mean places to go: ITC (international trade center—a mall like shopping center with a bargain price), supermarket. She even managed to go to Bandung with Tante Evi to take Tante Niken to do some shopping at the famous Factory Outlets.
There are Bik Onah and Mbak Tila to cook and do the house chores, and Mbak Anis to take care of Akira, Mbak Nur and Alexa for Wisnu to play with. It leaves a huge room for Ibu to do something different , something she has always wanted to do. For the company she used to work for will be ready to take her back by the end of July, there must be something else to make her busy before life drives her crazy. She begins to search for part time job --so far none is quite promising, but she keeps her eyes widely open. There are some interesting courses to join but they are not on the top list of priorities for the time being as Aji will be the only bread winner for the next four months.
Ibu still wakes up around 1.30 AM and work on the computer or get something to read before going back to sleep at around 5. Unfortunately, the internet connection is expensive and slow in Jakarta, so she could only plug into the cyber world for several minutes a day now. Perhaps it a sign for her to read and write more!!!
