Travel and Arrival in Indonesia!

Hello everyone, selamat sore!
This is my first post from Indonesia, although I have been here since Saturday evening. What a great place I am in!
The journey was very interesting and incredibly long! We left Akron, PA at 5:30am on Thursday the 16th and departed from Philadelphia at 10:00am. Flew across to LA and then finally across the Pacific! I have to say, Singapore Airlines really knows how to treat its customers! We were comfortable, well-fed and got to refuel in Tokyo! What a pleasant surprise to sit in that airport for an hour. We flew onward to Singapore - a great airport that exudes prosperity - and met the first YAMENer there. The Young Anabaptist Mennonite Exchange Network of MCC sends volunteers across the global South. The YAMENers on the Indonesia come from India, Zambia, Uganda and China. We met the rest at the Jakarta airport. Landing here was a relief, in that we were more than halfway done our travel and finally in the country where we would be spending the next 11 months. The sights, sounds and smell were very reminiscent of India 3 years ago, but yet they were so different! And Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian language) was almost completely foreign to me. Thank God for the language lessons coming in a few days!
On Saturday the 18th (Friday didn't really exist as we were jumping time zones), we were in Jakarta for 12 hours and then flew to Semarang, a smaller city in the north of Java. Picking out the two white faces in the small airport, we found the MCC representatives and departed for our home for the next six weeks, Salatiga. Salatiga is a reasonably-sized city close by, and the drive was slightly delayed by revellers in the streets. This weekend was the Indonesian national holiday and also Idul Fitri, the end of the Muslim tradition of Ramadan. We've been watching fireworks every evening for the past four nights! I look forward to Indonesian holidays; apparently there are many of them throughout the year, as the government recognizes Muslim and Christian calendars.
So, here we are in Salatiga! I am staying with the Exchange Coordinators, an awesome couple with a one month-old son. On the first day, our team of nine YALTers (SALT and YAMEN together - acronyms are very common in this organization) walked around Salatiga. The city was still moving at a lazy holiday pace so traffic wasn't bad. But no matter what the circumstance, there are always cars and people moving around! Opposite of how North Americans move on streets, I might add. I still look left when I should be looking right...
We also met some of the MCC staff here in Salatiga, as this is where the head office is. They are truly a family here and I am so excited to be part of it for a year!
For the past few days, we've been having sessions on policies, hanging around, getting to know each other, eating new and interesting meals (so far I have had nasi goreng, gado gado, ayam soto and mi ayam; look them up!) and catching up on sleep. For the past 2 days, we had our "survival Bahasa" crash course. A wonderful teacher brought us through basic Indonesian, so now we understand greetings, numbers, questions, family, likes/dislikes and other conversational topics. We finished today and boy, is there a lot to know! I feel slightly comfortable with it and hope that I retain everything. T. was a wonderful teacher, terima kasih!
In the next few days, our team is moving on to the homes of our language study host families for the following few weeks. I am looking forward to spending some time with an Indonesian family and practicing my Indonesian! I am excited to delve into the culture here and build relationships with these hospitable and wonderful people. I also learned about my host family for my assignment starting in October! More details to come when I get there.

Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers! It's only the first week in Indonesia but I am already quite comfortable here. Naturally I will get homesick at one point, and culture shock will come and go. But God is good and I am here to serve :) May he keep bringing my team into fruitful opportunities and keep us in health and safety. Also, my stomach still hasn't been too unhappy! As many of you know, I have some dietary restrictions and therefore was quite worried when coming here. But it's doing better than I expected, so far!
If anyone wants to send me mail while I am here in Salatiga, the address is:
MCC Indonesia Office
#3 Jl. Merbabu
Salatiga, Jawa Tengah
507324 Indonesia
And it doesn't take too long! If it's a package, please label it with "Personal Effects" or have the value listed as $0.

Blessings,
Lisi
"May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD my rock and my redeemer." Psalm 19:14.