Silly me, thought today would be a normal, laid-back day. And it was for the morning. I had a nice bowl of pre-cut dragonfruit for breakfast:
I had just ordered lunch (some grilled chicken) when Leli came in and said they were ready to leave (at 11:45 AM). Since she had told us the day before we would be leaving at 12:30, this threw Julia and I off a little, but as this is the usual, we grabbed our things and went out to the car.
We knew that the plan was to visit parliament, but we had no idea what was in store. We thought that we would be meeting with some staff, snapping a picture or two, and getting away from our computers for a couple of hours. When we arrived, we went through multiple layers of security, including a guard at the parking lot entrance and a metal detector (which went off for both Julia and I, but being bule women, I suppose they didn't think we posed a threat).
The building was extremely clean, compared the the police headquarters at least, and we went up the the 8th floor and were (literally) ushered into an extremely nice office, with a couple of large armchairs and four couches in a square around marble tables with ikat table runners (more on that later). A large picture of a stately-looking woman hung behind the desk on the other side of the room, and a huge flat-screen TV was playing...House MD.
Suddenly, the woman from the picture walked into the room. A real-life Indonesian parliamentarian! She greeted us and we all sat down, and she and Leli began a lively conversation in Bahasa. A few minutes later, a second woman entered the room and joined in. Julia and I later learned that these women were members of the women's caucuses of DPD-RI and DPR-RI, the national legislature and the regional house of representatives. We had some tea, tried a type of lychee, and Julia and I answered a couple of questions in English between long bouts of Bahasa.
They then invited us to stay for lunch (so much for ordering before I left! but I just enjoyed it for dinner), where we enjoyed a nice view of Central Jakarta while making small talk. We learned about one of the womens' daughters' upcoming nuptials, and I caught a joke (or so I thought) about how it will be in her palace. We traded cards, took some pictures, and I walked out with a dopey grin on my face.
It turns out, the wedding at her palace is ACTUALLY at her palace. I failed to catch in the earlier conversation that this representative is also the Queen of Yogyakarta, which maintains a semi-autonomous status within Indonesia. NBD, I just lunched with the Queen and told her to call me if she is ever in New York. Photo proof:
From L to R: Julia, yours truly, Queen Gusti Kanjeng Ratu Hemas, Aida Zulaika Nasution Ismeth, and Leli)
We paused for some pictures before heading back to the office (see below for me and the Parliament), where Julia and I persuaded Nita to tell us what just happened. It looks like I will also be working on a small proposal for them, which is awesome.
Finally, Julia and I book our last-minute trip to Surabaya, to include Mt. Bromo and Mt. Pananjakan! So this will probably be my last blog entry until I return--until then, adios!
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