Beat the traffic jam

The whole of last week was spent in Jakarta where my colleagues and I taught at the Universitas Pelita Harapan or UPH (Light of Hope University) on Monday and then spent the rest of the week in conference with the rest of my global colleagues. Teaching at UPH was quite an experience other than the fact that I taught on Moral Relativism in Bahasa Melayu to a class of 50 Indonesian students (the difference between Bahasa Indonesia and Bahasa Melayu/Malaysia is like Swiss German and German German).

Many who have traveled to Jakarta would know that the city traffic is really bad during rush hour. Since our meeting with the students was to start around 8:30 am, the administration of the college decided that the easiest and fastest way to get us from our hotel to the campus was by flying us in on a chopper! So, promptly at 7:45 am, we went up to the roof of the hotel where the helipad is and was taken on a ride with an aerial view of Jakarta. It was really interesting to see the city from that perspective. While it was not my first time on a helicopter, it was still pretty cool. The flight was only almost 7 minute long (the car-ride back took us almost an hour!!!).

The students I interacted with were a delight - so well behaved and sweet. And they were so patient with my struggle with the Malay language. It was indeed a special experience.

Other than having to attend meetings, I also managed to squeeze in some shopping. Our boss organized for the team to go to Mangga Dua - a swap meet/bazaar kind of place that sells almost everything under the sun. Great place to find quality replica of designer bags, watches and pens. As someone once remarked, it's the place to find original fakes (as opposed to fake fakes!!!)

After spending a week in Jakarta, I was more than ready to head home to my poor husband who was coming down with a cold. As soon as I got home, I had to get the house ready for some guests from KL and LA. More of this in my next post as it IS getting late and I am EXHAUSTED!