Goodbye, Jakarta!
May, 2007 Selamat Jalan dari Jakarta! (Goodbye Jakarta!) As I sit here on my twentieth day in lovely Nantucket, I am struck by the dichotomy of life in Jakarta compared to that in S’conset, Nantucket. In one city, a visitor is introduced to the depths of poverty and the crush of humanity, and as you enter the other extreme, you are brought to the pinnacle of decadence and ostentatious wealth. I have not written since the disastrous flood of February, mostly out of a sense of lingering despondence, as we served out our final months in Jakarta. We yearned for the day we would leave that metropolis for the last time and when it came, I expected to feel some sense of sadness and melancholy, but all I could do was whoop for joy as we took off on our Singapore Airlines flight. Unexpectedly, I did shed a small tear as the man at Jakarta passport control stamped my passport for the last time and asked whether we would be returning to Jakarta. Once we hit US soil, the madness of a Rodgers summer began. We are the family of schleppers…with our trunk filled to overflowing and leg room consigned to my dreams, we set off for our annual trek from Williamsburg to Nantucket (not as adventurous as the trip from Milan to Minsk, I am sure, but as of yet, no sitcom has been written about our trials and tribs). We actually had a stellar stay up on the Isle -the weather was gorgeous, we caught up with old friends, played tennis, spent time fixing the house, eating, cleaning, eating, cleaning, answering the phone, dealing with laundry and cleaning and eating some more. Welcome to America. Ride’em Cowboy (and girl!) After our luscious five week stay on Nantucket, we were treated to the crème de la crème of the summer: a week at Moosehead Lodge in Moose, Wyoming. Mom and Charlie have been regular visitors there for a few years now and this year we were able to make it a family reunion with brother Richard and his crew. This place truly has earned the name of dude ranch, as each guest is assigned a horse for the entire week. My equestrian chariot went by the name of Dutch and must have gotten fat waiting for me to climb onto his back. Since Sophia was too young by a year to ride, we took turns hanging out with her while the others went exploring. The landscape was spectacular! Under the shadow of the Grand Tetons, with elk, bison, antelope and other hidden wildlife, it was an amazing spot to roam. At one point, we rode through a herd of hundreds of elk with bison within a Frisbee throw. The food was magnificent, the weather perfection – all in all it was off the chart for a perfect family vacation. 
Sam now wants to be a wrangler when he gets older. He was able to ride every day, and had some interesting moments on his steed, Autumn. He only fell off his horse once, when the horse broke into an unexpected canter. He held a rein in each hand and spread out his arms, and began to list to the right… and slowly slid further and further to the side, until he finally toppled onto the ground below. Amazingly, the only part hurt was a scratch on the left elbow. The other priceless entertainment was a visit to the county rodeo. Along with the gratuitous bull riders and a bevy of small girls doing feats of equestrian derring do, my favorite event involved the budding broncho buckers, aged 3-6 years(!), riding on sheep. Each child would climb onto the back of a sheep, the gate would swing open and he/she would hang on for as long as possible. The average ride lasted about 3 seconds and then the poor child would be thrown onto the ground and often trampled by the frantic sheep! The best one was the little guy who climbed on with his head at the sheep’s butt and his legs straddling the sheep’s head. He lasted the longest! Even Sam and Sophia got involved as all of the kids in the stands kids ran onto the rodeo arena to chase calves while trying to grab a red ribbon off of their tails. By the time our kids realized the rules of the game, it was long over. Poor Sophia was still chasing the calves after the other kids had headed back to their seats. She looked up and upon seeing us wave her over, the promptly face planted in the middle of the arena - to great applause from the adoring crowd. On the Road Again We ended our romp out west and headed back east where fog caused our final flight back to Nantucket to be cancelled. After a long day of travel, we were forced to take the bus to the ferry and the ferry over to Nantucket for our final night on Isle. Thank goodness Sam and Sophia are such seasoned travellers… We arose in the morning and had our final meal at the Downey Flake diner – replete with impromptu live music from a barber-shop quartet. We are still not sure if they just wanted a free meal or were so inspired by the lovely food to sing, but it was great entertainment. We got in the car to head for the ferry and I checked the time of our ferry only to discover we had missed it! Alas, a beautiful day on Nantucket is a nice place to be stuck for a few extra hours. We made it to our destination, Jared’s aunt and uncle in Orleans on the Cape and had a lovely dinner and snooze before rising again and heading to our final Stateside destination: NYC. I already mentioned the dichotomy of travelling from Jakarta to Nantucket, but this last stop brought home the reality of reverse culture shock. We spent one night in the Manhattan Club in central Manhattan. After paying the bellhop an outrageous tip for his “service with an attitude”, we turned around the next day to switch hotels to the adjacent Park Central Hotel. We had to persuade grumbling bell hops to transfer our17 bags of varying size and weight from one elevator shaft to another (along with another monstrous tip). After a great dinner at a local diner (with white table cloths and tuxedo’d waitstaff), a visit to a street market, it was pretty much time to head for JFK and the inevitable strip search and delays and unfriendly personnel. Nothing was different this time. We stopped in Frankfurt to meet up with the other new teachers headed for Abu Dhabi and here I end this instalment and prepare for our coming adventure!
Sam now wants to be a wrangler when he gets older. He was able to ride every day, and had some interesting moments on his steed, Autumn. He only fell off his horse once, when the horse broke into an unexpected canter. He held a rein in each hand and spread out his arms, and began to list to the right… and slowly slid further and further to the side, until he finally toppled onto the ground below. Amazingly, the only part hurt was a scratch on the left elbow. The other priceless entertainment was a visit to the county rodeo. Along with the gratuitous bull riders and a bevy of small girls doing feats of equestrian derring do, my favorite event involved the budding broncho buckers, aged 3-6 years(!), riding on sheep. Each child would climb onto the back of a sheep, the gate would swing open and he/she would hang on for as long as possible. The average ride lasted about 3 seconds and then the poor child would be thrown onto the ground and often trampled by the frantic sheep! The best one was the little guy who climbed on with his head at the sheep’s butt and his legs straddling the sheep’s head. He lasted the longest! Even Sam and Sophia got involved as all of the kids in the stands kids ran onto the rodeo arena to chase calves while trying to grab a red ribbon off of their tails. By the time our kids realized the rules of the game, it was long over. Poor Sophia was still chasing the calves after the other kids had headed back to their seats. She looked up and upon seeing us wave her over, the promptly face planted in the middle of the arena - to great applause from the adoring crowd. On the Road Again We ended our romp out west and headed back east where fog caused our final flight back to Nantucket to be cancelled. After a long day of travel, we were forced to take the bus to the ferry and the ferry over to Nantucket for our final night on Isle. Thank goodness Sam and Sophia are such seasoned travellers… We arose in the morning and had our final meal at the Downey Flake diner – replete with impromptu live music from a barber-shop quartet. We are still not sure if they just wanted a free meal or were so inspired by the lovely food to sing, but it was great entertainment. We got in the car to head for the ferry and I checked the time of our ferry only to discover we had missed it! Alas, a beautiful day on Nantucket is a nice place to be stuck for a few extra hours. We made it to our destination, Jared’s aunt and uncle in Orleans on the Cape and had a lovely dinner and snooze before rising again and heading to our final Stateside destination: NYC. I already mentioned the dichotomy of travelling from Jakarta to Nantucket, but this last stop brought home the reality of reverse culture shock. We spent one night in the Manhattan Club in central Manhattan. After paying the bellhop an outrageous tip for his “service with an attitude”, we turned around the next day to switch hotels to the adjacent Park Central Hotel. We had to persuade grumbling bell hops to transfer our17 bags of varying size and weight from one elevator shaft to another (along with another monstrous tip). After a great dinner at a local diner (with white table cloths and tuxedo’d waitstaff), a visit to a street market, it was pretty much time to head for JFK and the inevitable strip search and delays and unfriendly personnel. Nothing was different this time. We stopped in Frankfurt to meet up with the other new teachers headed for Abu Dhabi and here I end this instalment and prepare for our coming adventure!
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