Embassies and Birthdays

In preparation for our June trip to Europe, I needed to add more Visa pages to my passport.  All the traveling back and forth to Singapore over the last year had used up all but two pages.  This meant a visit to yet another US Embassy to utilize consular services.

Using the US Embassy's Jakarta location's website, I booked the first appointment of the morning - 7:45 AM.  The website indicated I would be in and out in less than an hour.  With light traffic, we arrived at the embassy much earlier than I had intended - 7 AM.  The embassy had no place to park, so my driver dropped me at the concrete barriers in front of the entrance.  At that hour, there was already a long line of Indonesians waiting to obtain a travel visa or other foreign services. 

Knowing I had the first appointment, and not knowing the purpose for the line, I walked up to the security guard, showed him my appointment card, and was granted access to the Embassy grounds.  A short walk across the basketball court and I was at the entrance to the Embassy.  Here they told me it did not open until 7:30, and I would have to wait.

When they did open, an overzealous security guard asked all of us to queue against the wall.  He wanted this queue to be very efficient and I found myself wedged in a corner behind a cross, corpulent American and a hand sanitizer to my left.  If I was twenty pounds heavier, I would not have fit.

After clearing security, I walked to the consular services building and waited....and waited....and waited.  Punctuality is not a well known attribute of Indonesia.  Bad traffic means everyone is late for parties and appointments and reservations.  The shows at amusement parks start anywhere from 15-45 minutes after their advertised start time.  Even meetings at the office tend to start 5-10 minutes late.  Even though I had a 7:45 AM appointment, none of the windows even opened until 8:10.  The window I needed to use didn't open until closer to 8:30, which begs the question why they have a 7:45 AM appointment.

Once I provided my passport, they added the pages and had it back to me in less than 10 minutes.  My wife and daughter will need to go through this same exercise in the next few weeks.  We'll try to book them an afternoon appointment.

On Saturday, we had a birthday party to attend, so we did not have our typical family outing.  Instead, in the morning I went swimming with our daughter while my wife took our son to Gymboree.  In the afternoon, we went to the birthday party for our daughter's 3-year-old friend.

Birthday parties here are always interesting.  They are also much less stressful on the adults than they are in the states.  The party host hires entertainment.  In this case, Gymboree and a group that provided a big air-blown jumper with a slide.  These two groups are responsible for entertaining the kids.  The children arrive with both parents and nannies in tow.  The nannies are responsible for keeping an eye on the kids and making sure they are participating and/or behaving.  This affords the parents the opportunity to drink wine and beer and to socialize.

Birthday parties are also a United Nations affair.  This particular party was hosted by friends who hail from Ukraine (the wife) and Switzerland (the husband).  We met people who hailed from Spain, Germany, Alaska, Sweden, United Kingdom and Indonesia.  Conversations took place in German, Indonesian, Spanish and English.

These parties are always great opportunities to discuss the expat experience (we're always the newbies to expat living, but not always the newbies to Jakarta).  This is how we learn where to go in Jakarta, what doctors to see, and where to vacation.  We received some good advice on Barcelona and Paris from the woman we met from Spain who grew up in Madrid and lived in Paris for several years before moving to Jakarta.

When the entertainment is over, it's a mass exodus.  No one wants the responsibility for entertaining the kids!  So, we thanked our hosts and left with the masses.

Next week, we will return to our Saturday outings.  There is an interesting facility outside of Jakarta where we can fish and pick local fruit.  Should be interesting.