"Toto, we're not in (Arlington) anymore"

It's Friday evening, Oct. 1, Friday AM your time. You know you're not in Kansas anymore when you rush back to your hotel room from an early breakfast to catch the election debate live. You also know you're not in Kansas when you're sitting in a comfy cozy wireless internet cafe in a city of 12 million insane drivers who pass on the left or right on a one-lane street, and you're looking out the window at light on a wall and it's not moths and cicadas scampering around it, but little lizard things with suction cups on their feet... Let's see, one also has to look at everything one puts in one's mouth with the chopsticks, as reading the NYTimes online and NOT looking at what one grabbed in one's wooden fingers will lead to a 4-alarm fire emergency; but with water at 50 cents and beer at $1.50 per glass, who's counting?

The other event of the day worthy of the books: I decided to make my introduction to the US Embassy today, and aside from the fact that it was a two-hour, cross-city thrill ride of a waste of time, my otherwise excellent taxi driver dropped me off at the closed end of the barbed-wired non-sidewalked two-block expanse that is Ft. US Embassy, Jakarta. After consulting with an immaculately dressed and noticeably well-armed policeman on the other side of the chest high iron gates of an adjoining fort (who suggested with his fingers that I compensate him for his time), I headed into a four-lane (many drivers clearly saw a minimum of two other lanes that escaped my vision) major artery for a two-block stroll to the beginning of the embassy's security maze. So there I was, thigh-high concrete topped by head-high barbed wire on my right, facing oncoming traffic of 1 to 6 wheels (and a weird pedestrian in my "lane" now that I think of it) here in the land where lane demarkation is as fluid and socially negotiated as democracy would be in an ideal world. Not to mention that until this experience I had only experienced the "you will never believe me unless you happen here to see for yourself" margin-for-error these guys use on the roads from INSIDE one of their missiles, and now it wasn't a missile but my left KNEE they were marginalizing... sigh... anyway, I digress...

I've been here 8 days and a few hours, and whew! what a week. I just finished a meeting in which I finalized the promotional materials for our new school. I spent all last weekend (my first, jet-lagged, hotel-room-bound "oh my God where am I and what have I gotten myself into please open a window no don't cause I can't live on gasoline fumes someone get me one of those cheap massages what time is it anyway" semi-awakening) redesigning a fine first effort from the team on the ground here to comply with George Mason's identity regulations. I'm amazed by what we've done already, and so is the team here. A great logo, a couple of posters, a gorgeous flyer with pricing inserts, a huge banner, bumper stickers, elevator and hallway signs, student folders, letterhead, envelopes, business cards... I really am getting the chance to build this baby from the ground up... will be ready Wednesday, ahead of an Oct. 22 placement test and Oct. 25 first day of classes. As long as you don't ask me what we're gonna use for textbooks on October 25, that spicy pepper invader I didn't see on the end of my chopsticks promises he won't come back...

Set up for next week I've also got meetings with a radio station, the Harvard of Indonesian universities, and the Regional English language Officer at the Embassy, while I move into fairly comfy digs (we hope) down the road from here, set up our offices and classrooms, etc. Not that I did all this myself, but so far the teamwork has been friggin' excellent. My primary cohort is a 60-year old gold mine owner (nearly ruined 20 years ago by a corruption scandal care of the Indonesian Gov't's gold-mining industry) The guy that started this is his brother-in-law, son of a diplomat, the former Ambassador to Ghana and Head of the Ministry of Education. Both of them are married to Univeristy lecturers, and there are other professors in the family. Despite all the familiarity and nepotism (it's how they protect themselves from the corruption), try as I might I can't feel anything but terrific vibes about this whole thing. Gold miner and I have just had a blast finalizing design ideas, etc., discovering very similar instincts and values regarding class and elegance... Anyway -- I still don't wanna believe this may all come true, but I've seen nothing to dissuade me from that view so far...

Anyway... tomorrow morning, day 9 or 1o and a Saturday, I'm off at 8:00 in a speedboat for a 90 minute ride to a beachside bungalow on a tiny island I've been promised is very quiet. Got my 30+ sunblock and mosquito spray, rainy season isn't quite here yet, and the snorkelling is fine and the beaches are white. I'll be back with panoramic pictures and a mild tan 30 hours later, and I plan to do a lot of stretching and deep breathing in-between times. Pictures in chapter 3.