Week 1 - My Homeland, Jakarta, Indonesia

Monumen Nasional/Monas
Credit: http://www.photosforclass.com​

Hello! I come from two countries, U.S and Indonesia. I’ve never been to the U.S so I’ll be talking about Jakarta, Indonesia. You’re probably thinking, “Oh! She’s going to say that it’s a wonderful place!” or “She’s going to say that it’s like a paradise!” Well, sad to say…YOU’RE WRONG! Traffic there sometimes lasts more than four hours! This is only in some places though. Not every place in Jakarta is like that. People there are actually very nice…well to me they are. I love Jakarta because there are so many places to see and explore, but there are only two places that I really like in Jakarta.

My grandparents’ house in the area called “Tomang” (I call the house itself Tomang, because my mom told me we lived in Tomang and I took it the wrong way).

The mall called “Taman Anggrek” (translation: Orchid Park…it’s not a park though).

My grandparents’ house is quite big and was also built by my grandfather. Amazing right? It’s a two-story house and I remember getting lost in the house when I was small. There are so many rooms! If you didn’t know the house, it would take you almost forever to find just one room. The garden is quite big, and I mean it. You could play hide and seek and hide behind the trees, plants, bushes, and bicycles (yes we keep our bikes in the garden, carry them through the house, outside and do whatever it is we want to do with them) and not be found. Also a little known fact, every time my entire family from my mom's side is free or on vacation or some sort, we all gather there in Tomang and take a family picture, and it gets really, really crowded. My family from my mom’s side is huge cause my mom has a lot of siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews. Which means I have a lot of aunts, great aunts, uncles, great uncles, and cousins. So yeah, it gets really packed sometimes, but I do enjoy playing with my cousins while the adults talk or chat or something (I don’t really know cause I don’t hang with the adults much).

Taman Anggrek is a really big mall; you could spend hours in there. The best place there would be the arcade called “Time Zone”.  There are a lot of stores and, well I basically want everything from there…!  Also there’s an ice rink there and it is so crowded. Why is it crowded? Because a lot of people like ice-skating and it’s the only ice rink in the mall. And just like my house, you can easily get lost there. I remember coming from a different way and then wondering where I was. I asked my mom where we were and she said the department store. I just went “OHHHH!” I was  lost. Good thing I had my mom with me, or else I would’ve stayed lost.

​Anyways, that’s my home, or country, or whatever you want to call it! See you next time