It all started this morning when my scheduled meeting got abruptly canceled because there will be a massive University of Indonesia (UI) student demonstration happen at Bundaran HI. The Governor of Jakarta also issued a WFH (Work From Home) appeal. I was just chilling, reading the news, fully supporting the students' voices in my heart, but also thinking about how the parents of those UI students must be worried right now. And then, like a lightning bolt, it hit me. Wait a minute... MY DAUGHTER IS A UI STUDENT! She had left for campus at 5:00 AM today, wearing her iconic yellow jacket. My husband was equally panicked. We quickly WhatsApp-ed her: "You're not joining the protest, right?" Her reply? A very vague: "Of course." Wait, of course YES, or of course NO?! Naturally, my friends started stirring the pot with things like, "They jam signals at protests to avoid viral. The parents have difficulty in reaching them out" and "Freshmen usuall...
To be completely honest, celebrating Independence Day this year felt like a total heartbreak. With a regime waving more red flags than a parade, most of us feel like raising a white flag and just giving up. So why on earth did we spend 12 grueling hours out in the city? My eldest daughter is moving to the UK next month for her studies, and she had one request on her pre-departure bucket list: an adventure around Jakarta relying entirely on public transport. So, despite the crowds, the heat, and the heavy political eye-rolls, we made it happen. And I'm glad we did! Our entourage for the day consisted of 7 people: me, my husband, our two daughters, my mom-in-law, our former domestic helper who now works for my in-laws, and my eldest daughter’s best friend who had term break from his uni days in Japan. To kick things off, my husband proudly presented us with an itinerary he generated using AI. It looked a little something like this: ITINERARY 17 AGUSTUS 2026 ?...