GoJeronimo: First Impressions

Selamat siang orang orang!

It's been over a month, almost two, since we've been here... thought I'd get some shots of our new home up here for you all. Enjoy!

Iza 'n mum,
perfecting the frog stroke

an atmospheric and archtiectural tribute to Polska!
dziekuje bardzo polski paniom i panom!

our new flat. ain't it gorgeous! ;-)
(we've already yanked the curtains and hope to do something with these old 'n ugly chairs and couch)
We're on the third floor, in a two bedroom, two bath flat, with one long balcony off this room and our main bedroom. We have views of a variety of tropical and pine trees, and one flaming smoke stack/chimney from the refinery out west, though thankfully barely visible. It's quite private as the other adjacent apartments face out a different way. We're slowly adding plants and balcony furniture to make it all more comfy. So far Iza hasn't thrown anything off or tried climbing the railing... but she will, I'm sure.

Iza's been a great help in moving in and tidying up the place
like the paisley buttoned headboard?
that's on the way out, too!

breakin' the law! We've been child carseat-less since it's in our shipment... but Iza doesn't seem to mind!

Tugu 3 tangan (The 3 fists monument)
No idea what this represents, yet, but it's a 3-road intersection marker not too far from our home. It's where we often meet for our weekday mountain bike rides.
The white and blue vans you see here are the local public transit buses. They come in blue/white and orange/white, denoting route type. The blue ones are much more prevalent, and there are no official bus stops anywhere in town. There are usually two workers in the van; the driver and his assistant who helps control traffic or leans out looking for needy passengers, whom could be anywhere on the street, and, perhaps, helps people if they have large loads. You just give them a palm-facing down wave of the hand and they'll pull over for you, no matter what the traffic is like around them/you. It's considered rude to wave palm open or to yell or whistle at them (or anyone in Indonesia), or to point, too. Or to talk with arms crossed, or point your feet at someone, or to put your hands on your hips... it's not easy for gregarious Americans and Europeans to adapt to all these rules of behavior!

Balikpapan Beru (New Balikpapan)
This place is crazy. A cross between Disney World, Venice, Amsterdam, Rome, Florence and even some Russian influence. Very pastelly. This area has an even more interesting array of monuments and fountains that put the fists to shame, including a massive monkey traffic circle, with a hundred monkeys playing instruments and doing all sorts of things. It all looks new but the paint and concrete is already cracking and falling apart. One of the newer malls is here where we need to shop at occasionally, and there's a fun indoor kids playground/ball room which Iza digs.

Iza got blocks, she's a good tower builder
(and destroyer)

our first visitor

sometimes a good brusher,
always a cutie

the main pasar/market
nice melons, eh?
this place is jammed full of stalls selling all foods imaginable. There's a fresh seafood market nearby, which is a bit pungent. I got splattered with fish guts last time through it.

Sadly, nearly everything here is imported. the soil in Borneo is more clay than dirt so it's not so fertile or easy to till. At least we're on the water so it's easy to ship things here. There are loads of chilies, green beans, kangkung (something similar to water spinach) and other veggies that come from nearby regions to be had for cheap.

banana anyone?
of course, there are tons of local banana varieties (pisang), mangos (mangga), papaya (papaya!) and pineapple (nanas, like 'ananas' in Polish!)
This is one of my favorite vendors in the market. He's always happy and always agrees to my relatively lower bidding price of around 80 US cents for a massive bunch of ripe or almost ripe bananas (2+kgs worth)
He often throws in a few extra baby 'banan-itas' for Iza cuz he likes her so much

there is a wide variety of ants in and around our apartment, from these big red ants which bite you to micro super speedy ones that have an also micro speedy spider cousin. June bugs, or something similar (flying beetle bugs) are everywhere.
This will be quite the meal for these workaholics