Apologies if I didn’t clarify this earlier, and some of you were wondering who Lydia is… she’s a friend of a friend who was looking for a roommate to split the cost of living in Jakarta for a year. She is a lawyer & PhD candidate on a Fulbright scholarship from the University of Washington, Seattle, studying geography & post-disaster development; and she was a classmate of Jeff, my USINDO friend who dropped out of the program after 3 days in Yogya. Jeff put us in e-mail contact & I said I was happy to help. We’re still getting to know each other, but she’s been easy going, fun to be around, and now she’s my housemate.

After getting settled a little, we made a list of things we need: sheets, pillows, blankets, dishes, silverware, glasses, trash can, food, pots & pans, etc…
And then we went to the mall.

The mall here in South Jakarta (Gandaria) is unlike anything I’ve seen in Indonesia yet. Very international & cosmopolitan. Starbucks & Coffee Bean,,, ok- I expected that. But Italian pizza restaurants, French bistros, an American breakfast menu?? Live entertainment… Huh!