Where are we?

Here are a few images to give you a better idea of exactly where we are in Indonesia.  Right now we’re living in the city of Bandung on the island of Java:

Here’s a closer view of Bandung.  Our area of town, Dago, is circled:

Finally, here’s our street!  School is just right around the corner:

Our New Home

-by Kara

We won’t be able to move into our new house here in Bandung for a few weeks because the people that currently live there aren’t moving out until the 29th. However, rather than make you wait that long to see it, we thought we would post some pictures of what it looks like right now. We are planning to repaint and to get new furniture, so it will be fun to see before and after pictures!

Here is us standing in front of the house:

Here is the front door and living area. You can see the master bedroom over to the right side.

The bathroom – yay for flushing Western toilet!

The kitchen. Cabinets are uncommon here, so we’re excited to have them!

The “water feature” that is behind the kitchen:

The upstairs loft:

View from the loft down into the living area and front door:

 

We’re staying in a different house temporarily, and after a long day  of moving all our stuff and shopping for some things that we needed, I (Kara) sat down on the bed to feed Elizabeth and the entire thing collapsed underneath me. It’s funny now, but at the time I broke down in tears wondering what else could happen and wanting to go home. We are VERY ready to have a stable home and a place to unpack.

I think that Elizabeth started teething today also, so I hope that I have patience to deal with all that is going on!

We made it!

Around mid-day Tuesday, or Monday night in the US, we finally arrived in Jakarta!  It was a huge blessing to us that our teammates were able to travel with us.  A good friend who is also in language school here met us at the airport, and it was really nice to see a familiar face.  We’re slowly settling in and adjusting to the time change, and Elizabeth has been great about the whole thing. 

Just yesterday we decided on a house, so in a few weeks we’ll be all moved in and have a place to call home for a while.  Its so exciting to finally be here, but at the same time we still wonder what on earth we’re doing sometimes!

We won’t have regular internet access until we’ve moved into our house, so it may be a little while before we can upload lots of pictures and video.  I promise we’ll do it as soon as we can.

You know you’re not in Texas anymore when…

…your flight is delayed and then rerouted to make an extra stop for fuel because of a large cloud of volcanic ash from a recent eruption in Japan.

Elizabeth!

Well, we’re leaving in just a few days. It’s hard to believe that the time has already come! We will try to keep this blog updated with pictures and video as much as possible once we get there, so check back often.

Here’s an assortment of pictures for your viewing pleasure. All of this is from our time here in Loveland, OH with Kara’s family before we leave for Indonesia this coming Sunday. Enjoy!

http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf

Here’s a short video of Elizabeth showing her playing in the pool, talking more and learning to sit up!

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=5092924&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1

Elizabeth! from Matt Menger on Vimeo.