[I am posting this today, July 17th, but it is excerpts of an e-mail Nash wrote to a friend on July 10, 2005]
Hi everyone,
It doesn't feel like I moved. The plane ride was great. Even though I was tired at the end. We stayed at the JW Marriott in Jakarta which is a five star hotel. To get into the hotel we had to go through a security check. When we got to the hotel entrance a bellman opened the door for us and took our luggage. I didn't expect that. Then we went through a glass hallway into the hotel. It scared me that there were three men with machine guns at the front gate. When we got into our rooms I was amazed at the size of the rooms and how nice it was. It had a garden and a playground. It also had a nice pool. When we were leaving the hotel to get on the flight to Singapore we had to wait for my dad to check out. Meanwhile, the staff talked to us alot. Then our driver took us to the airport.
After we got to Indonesia, we had to go to Singapore to get some paperwork done for our Visas. We went to a hotel when we arrived in Singapore and there were no guards because Singapore is a safer place. I think that this hotel was better than the first one. That night we went swimming and found out that the Singapore palace was right next to the hotel. When a man was doing our paperwork, we went to Sentosa Island and we went to the Merlion which is a giant stone lion that is also a mermaid. We saw pink dolphins (the host of the show said to the crowd in a strange voice "this is a magical moment to meet the pink dolphins") and walked around some more. We had lunch on the beach. We also saw huge sea turtles and a lot of other sea creatures.
We came back to Indonesia and went to our house. It was very late. Although I was tired, I was amazed at the size of our house. That night was the first night I slept in my bed here. I have been swimming so much here, sometimes 4 times a day, that I got swimmer's ear. I have a huge infection in my ear and it hurts really bad. Now I cannot swim until it gets better. My dad took me to a clinic on Sunday and I got some medicine. It still hurts a little, but it's getting better. It has been the worst pain I have felt in my life. Today it still hurts, but not as much.
I am adjusting well. Our househelp works a lot and is nice. Kandar, the gardner, is very humble. He only asks for $90 a month and to see his family a week every three months. He is not from Jakarta. His wife and children live in a different village.
Talk to you later,
Nash
