My husband and I decided to take a leap of faith in our careers and in our relationship. Really it was my husband who took the leap. I am a seasoned traveler and very familiar with picking up one’s life and moving across the world. I did this very thing in July of 2017 when I took a job at an international school in Montevideo, Uruguay. My Uruguayan husband, on the other hand, had never lived outside of his home country. The farthest he had travelled was to the United States in 2021 after having met this crazy American who insisted he meet her family. It was indeed a leap of faith since no amount of research can prepare a person for living the expat life on the other side of the world.

With eight suitcases, a bike box filled with art, and a massive dog crate holding a very anxious rescue dog, we left our home (his of 37 years and mine of 6 years) at 1:30 in the afternoon of July 21 and made our way across three continents and ten time zones to our new home of Jakarta, Indonesia. Amazingly, all of the bags, the bike box, and the dog made it!

Things I do not recommend doing when moving abroad:

1. I do not recommend moving abroad without at least one job secured. Your new job will take care of all the import and immigration paper work.
2. I do not recommend moving abroad with a shipping container unless your new job also helps you take care of that as well.
3. I do not recommend moving abroad with an animal if you have to change airlines. [Read my post on traveling with animals to understand why.]
4. I do not recommend moving abroad if you are unable to cope with immediate stresses and the immediate hemorrhaging of money.
5. I do not recommend moving abroad without some cell data readily available to help you with language barriers.

As soon as we got off the plane at 3:23pm on July 23rd, my husband insisted on changing his pants to shorts. I get it. It is hot in Jakarta. (What is really going through my head while he is in the bathroom).

Really? Right this second?! You can’t wait until we get through customs?! Our poor dog is waiting for us and you are going to change your clothes?! We are literally running from an airport into an air-conditioned car, but sure. Change your clothes. How in the world does it take 10 minutes (only took 3 minutes) for a person to change into shorts?!

Was it a fair inner dialogue? No. But remember, by this point I had been on a plane for over 24 hours, dealt with an airline change with an animal (see post), and have years of experience dealing with immigration lines in airports. I was tired. I was cranky. I was not remembering my rule number four when it comes to moving abroad.

Our connecting flight was from Doha, Qatar. The Jakarta International Airport (CGK) is…NOTHING like Doha. Everything is old. It smells a bit. The carpet has not been cleaned in some time. And immigration is an absolute mess. Immigration is a vast open space with copious lines for different people. The Indonesian passport line? That’s a breeze. Every other passport holder? You are fucked! I thankfully had abided by rule number 1. I had a printed out copy of the step-by-step instructions from my new job about getting through immigration. I was also on day 2 without much sleep and my critical thinking skills were very limited. My printout said to find the ITAS line. ITAS. ITAS. There is no damn ITAS line anywhere. Wait. Waaaaayyyyyy in the back corner is a sign that says ITAS electronic. Ok, now how do we get there?

I am an American woman. What is the first thing I do? Ask. I type in where is the immigration line for ITAS into google translate (see rule 5). And the very friendly airport worker pointed me to the longest line in the history of man. No. I typed. That is the line for pay upon arrival. I already have my ITAS. Show man the printed out immigration paper. Again, the man pointed me into the line from hell. I am also an American woman who follows directions. So we stood in line for about 20 minutes not moving. I am ALSO an American woman who believes in rule number 1 and trusted that the new job had taken care of this so that we didn’t have to wait in the hours-long line of foreign people who still needed to pay for their immigration visa.

Thankfully, at about this time I got a call from my HR person who proceeded to tell me I was in the wrong line and got an airport worker to come find me and direct us into the correct line. (see? rule number 1 works!) Ok, now we are in the KITAS line (ITAS with a K =No critical thinking skills by this point). This line is way shorter, but also extremely slow. Plus, a family of assholes decided to cut in front of us when they realized that their line was too long. And honestly, I was too tired and emotionally depleted to care. About 30 minutes later, we got to the front, took our picture, and walked out of customs – 1 hour and 45 minutes after we had landed.

The people from HR were waiting for us outside of immigration (rule number 1 is key). They helped us with the luggage, directed us to our dog, who was waiting with a representative from the company I had hired to quarantine her (she needed 7 days of quarantine in Indonesia), sped us through customs and cell-phone registration. (Fun Fact for Indonesia – You must register your cell phone if it is purchased from out of the country. If it is old enough, you are fine. But if it is new, you will be paying taxes.) Our phones were just under the limit, so we were tax free.

We parted with our beloved Rena dog and followed the HR crew towards the exits. A wafting of humid air hit long before the doors opened. We stepped outside into the heat that smelled of exhaust fumes. Around us was an endless sea of people and cars. Green plants were on every possible non-traffic surface. We divided our suitcases into house pile and hotel pile, jumped into a VERY air-conditioned car (see, Nico?!) and made our journey to the hotel. As the windows filled with sights of high-rises, mosques, traffic, and green plants, my new assistant principal turned around in the front seat and said, “Welcome to Jakarta.”