Welcome to Our Home

A first look at our new city the morning after we arrived.

Before we came to Indonesia, we tried to prepare Lydia by reading a story about going on an airplane, and talking about our new house.  “New house!” was a phrase we heard from her frequently during our first few weeks here.  Here are some pictures and thoughts on our new house and surrounding area. 

Our new house.

The area where we live is called a “Taman”—comparable to a subdivision in the states.  Our taman is quiet, beautifully landscaped, and filled with other expats (people who are originally from other countries but have relocated here) who also work at Jeff’s school, or at the international school down the road.  This has made it easy to ask questions and get to know people.  There’s a playground in our Taman that Lydia has enjoyed exploring, and has been the genesis of some of her many mosquito bites. We frequently hear the request, "I play playground." Lydia says, "smell good" when I rub the citronella oil on her to keep away the mosquitos before we go outside.  It is a staple at most grocery stores here, and can be found in the space that by the checkout where you'd find mints, gum, and candy in the states.  

Lydia playing in the playground across from our house.

All year round, the sunlight is from about 6 AM – 6 PM, and sometimes in the evening I like to go on walks when Jeff gets back before it gets completely dark.  Here are some of the sights from our Taman.

A field at the edge of our taman.

The view down our street.

Houses in our neighborhood are grand and ornate.  The house the school prepared for us is very beautiful and spacious, although not homey. We’ve been encouraged as we’ve visited the homes of those who’ve been here longer, that it’s possible to make this feel like home, it just takes time.  The floors here are made from a beautiful stone tile that is probably much cleaner than carpet but incredibly HARD.  When Jeff and I walked in and saw the tall staircase of stone tile stretching to the second floor, we had immediate visions of falls and cracked heads.  But it turns out this is the norm here, every house we’ve seen has a staircase like ours and hard stone floors.  Lydia already had one tumble, and has added the phrase, "fall down stairs," "careful," and "sippippy" (slippery) to her vocabulary.  We must say these to her a lot! We were also surprised that there isn’t a bathtub in the house, so Lydia has had to adapt to taking a bath in a tub I found at our local “Wal-Mart.”

Lydia had mixed feelings about this bathtub at first, but she's adjusting now! (Sorry, I couldn't figure out how to get this picture to turn).

Our living room is large and has very high ceilings which makes it feel even bigger.  It’s perfect for a sitting area for adults, and a play space for the kids.  I also like the set up of the kitchen which has a nice eating area and an island that looks into the kitchen with lots of counter space. 

Lydia in the living room.

Mommy's "helper" in the kitchen.

The eating area looking into the play area.

There's a door in the kitchen that leads to the laundry area, storage, a helper’s quarters (more on that later) and a random room that we could use, but we don’t currently since it’s through the helper’s quarters. 

Upstairs there are 3 spacious bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.  Each bedroom has a closet with an area for hanging clothes as well as shelves.  Most people don’t have dressers here, and keep all the clothing in the closet.  Most of the furniture you see in the house came with it, although we purchased some from Ikea.

I love this view out our bedroom window (the picture doesn't do it justice).  Can you find Elias?

We occasionally share our home with unwelcome guests—some winged bugs found their way under the door and were flying around our ceiling lights.  Ants are a constant reality here, and we have a few friendly geckos living on our walls that help keep away the bugs.  Last night I had to deal with my first huge cockroach!

We are blessed to have a beautiful home, and we had our first guests over for dinner this past weekend—I had to go buy some extra settings of silverware to prepare, and we realized that we only had 4 chairs in the house, so had to ask our guests to bring one along with them!

Slowly but surely its becoming ours, but it still has a long way to go! We look forward to opportunities to welcome some of you in person in the future!

Lydia standing on our front porch.

Mommy and Lydie.