As well as running counter to many of the feminist principles that I hold close and tight to my heart, this was also very embarassing. This is me with fellow interns Jesse and Amel.
Oh and BTW - I had to get a new phone number- so for those of you who love me- here it is : +6281385385861
Sunday, June 25, 2006
A New Groove
It seem to me that no matter where in the world we find ourselves, it is human instinct to start carving out a little niche, a little routine, and a little zone of predictability. After just over a week here my little niche is well and truly carved, and the pace at which it has happened has given me an insight into what my life here would be like, if for arguments sake, this internship became a job.
I was pretty stressed and anxious before moving up to Jakarta, just because it was a big change from the happy little life I was living in Yogya. However, the instant I moved into my kos, the anxiety dissolved and I realized that I had been worrying subconciously about the fact I had nowhere to live. As such, surprisingly, I was not that nervous on my first day when I took the lift up to the 21st floor to start work.
The office is I imagine, fairly typical of top-tier legal offices the world over. Because the Indonesian firm I am with is linked with the international firm who authorized my placement in the first place, they are forced to work to international time keeping standards and meet monthly billable hour targets set in the States, but as consolation they receive their wages in $US. I have absolutely no doubt that they are working far harder than lawyers in the vast majority of other law firms in this country.
I have been assigned to a Partner who is American but has lived in Indonesia for over 20 years. He is a nice guy, even if he has loaded me up heavily with work, but has given me quite a bit of responsibility for a memo that that has been a long time in the making. My task has been to plough through an enormous folder of law (about 30% not yet translated into English i.e. in Indonesian) and check that it reconciles with what has been written in the memo and then make sure that all the various parts of the big fat thing don’t conflict. That was a nice baptism of fire for me.
The cool thing is that I am actually lumped in with the Indonesian interns who have all recently started in the firm (however their terms are for 3 months plus) and so I kind of had an instant support network of fellow travelers in the office. It has been very interesting to get to know some of them over the past week (and last night), and has reaffirmed my suspicion about this country about the way money flows to money. All the interns are from very wealthy families have grown up in the best districts of Jakarta and I am sure have never had to cope with the day to day struggle to make ends meet that most other Indonesians endure. That said, they are all good people and they have been very welcoming of the random white girl who showed up to their office. They also find me hilarious because I go to work at the Stock Exchange on the back of a motorbike (I pay the guy about $10 a week to pick me up from my kos and take me) whereas as they all come in their own cars, or with their drivers.
On Friday it was Jakarta’s 471st birthday (or something) and also the firms 17th birthday, and so there was a bit of a function put on at lunchtime (we get lunch free every day but this was a “special” lunch which was kinda gross) which entailed each of us new kids putting on traditional Betawi (original Jkt people) dress and being interviewed as part of a “Miss Jakarta” contest in front of all the employees of the firm. We each also had to dance in the Betawi style with one of the Partners, which was very embarrassing as I had never seen the Betawi style until I entered the room where the party was happening. The whole thing was conducted in Indonesian and although I can usually understand everything that is being said, the Jakarta dialect is very different from the Central Java dialect and combined with the fact that they were speaking at a million miles an hour, I had very little idea what was going on. So that was a good way to impress my colleagues. Wearing strange clothes and a blank expression.
A couple of things about the firm- the owners are both women (which I think is unusual even in an Australian context…….) and the business of the firm is conducted predominantly in English. This does not however, mean that I can get away with speaking only English. Because people know that I speak Indonesian and it is a novelty for them to hear an expat using Indo in the office, they insist on speaking to me in Bahasa. Which is good really and means that even if I don’t improve much this month, at least I won’t be going backwards.
Some other observations- there is a secretary in the office called “Candy Baby Joy Christie Wawaruntu”, Indonesia has a “Department of Manpower” and there is no such thing as a professional ring tone in the office- I have to laugh every time I hear the house music ring tone of one of the particularly serious partners.
Anyway, that’s the first week- it was pretty full-on- I can’t believe I forgot to mention the working hours- I start at 8pm and finish between 7pm and 10pm. A lot of the new kids brag about pulling 2am finishes, but I have seen their productivity levels after 6pm and the way they drop dramatically, so I am not going to be busting my *something* just to look like I am staying late. I would rather get my work done and leave, than hang around trying to look busy! This rule will especially apply on Monday night, as I refuse to sit and watch the Socceroo’s in the staff kitchen or while sitting in my kos, so I am going straight from work to seek out some compatriots to share the love with.
Ok. I am going shopping. Sampai ketemu lagi.
I was pretty stressed and anxious before moving up to Jakarta, just because it was a big change from the happy little life I was living in Yogya. However, the instant I moved into my kos, the anxiety dissolved and I realized that I had been worrying subconciously about the fact I had nowhere to live. As such, surprisingly, I was not that nervous on my first day when I took the lift up to the 21st floor to start work.
The office is I imagine, fairly typical of top-tier legal offices the world over. Because the Indonesian firm I am with is linked with the international firm who authorized my placement in the first place, they are forced to work to international time keeping standards and meet monthly billable hour targets set in the States, but as consolation they receive their wages in $US. I have absolutely no doubt that they are working far harder than lawyers in the vast majority of other law firms in this country.
I have been assigned to a Partner who is American but has lived in Indonesia for over 20 years. He is a nice guy, even if he has loaded me up heavily with work, but has given me quite a bit of responsibility for a memo that that has been a long time in the making. My task has been to plough through an enormous folder of law (about 30% not yet translated into English i.e. in Indonesian) and check that it reconciles with what has been written in the memo and then make sure that all the various parts of the big fat thing don’t conflict. That was a nice baptism of fire for me.
The cool thing is that I am actually lumped in with the Indonesian interns who have all recently started in the firm (however their terms are for 3 months plus) and so I kind of had an instant support network of fellow travelers in the office. It has been very interesting to get to know some of them over the past week (and last night), and has reaffirmed my suspicion about this country about the way money flows to money. All the interns are from very wealthy families have grown up in the best districts of Jakarta and I am sure have never had to cope with the day to day struggle to make ends meet that most other Indonesians endure. That said, they are all good people and they have been very welcoming of the random white girl who showed up to their office. They also find me hilarious because I go to work at the Stock Exchange on the back of a motorbike (I pay the guy about $10 a week to pick me up from my kos and take me) whereas as they all come in their own cars, or with their drivers.
On Friday it was Jakarta’s 471st birthday (or something) and also the firms 17th birthday, and so there was a bit of a function put on at lunchtime (we get lunch free every day but this was a “special” lunch which was kinda gross) which entailed each of us new kids putting on traditional Betawi (original Jkt people) dress and being interviewed as part of a “Miss Jakarta” contest in front of all the employees of the firm. We each also had to dance in the Betawi style with one of the Partners, which was very embarrassing as I had never seen the Betawi style until I entered the room where the party was happening. The whole thing was conducted in Indonesian and although I can usually understand everything that is being said, the Jakarta dialect is very different from the Central Java dialect and combined with the fact that they were speaking at a million miles an hour, I had very little idea what was going on. So that was a good way to impress my colleagues. Wearing strange clothes and a blank expression.
A couple of things about the firm- the owners are both women (which I think is unusual even in an Australian context…….) and the business of the firm is conducted predominantly in English. This does not however, mean that I can get away with speaking only English. Because people know that I speak Indonesian and it is a novelty for them to hear an expat using Indo in the office, they insist on speaking to me in Bahasa. Which is good really and means that even if I don’t improve much this month, at least I won’t be going backwards.
Some other observations- there is a secretary in the office called “Candy Baby Joy Christie Wawaruntu”, Indonesia has a “Department of Manpower” and there is no such thing as a professional ring tone in the office- I have to laugh every time I hear the house music ring tone of one of the particularly serious partners.
Anyway, that’s the first week- it was pretty full-on- I can’t believe I forgot to mention the working hours- I start at 8pm and finish between 7pm and 10pm. A lot of the new kids brag about pulling 2am finishes, but I have seen their productivity levels after 6pm and the way they drop dramatically, so I am not going to be busting my *something* just to look like I am staying late. I would rather get my work done and leave, than hang around trying to look busy! This rule will especially apply on Monday night, as I refuse to sit and watch the Socceroo’s in the staff kitchen or while sitting in my kos, so I am going straight from work to seek out some compatriots to share the love with.
Ok. I am going shopping. Sampai ketemu lagi.
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