Normalizing

We hung out this afternoon with a family also on their way to Jakarta.  They fly in 5 days before us.

This was exactly what I needed. 

We had met this family before, and so the kids went straight into play-mode and the conversation flowed instantly.  We should have done this a long time ago.  Sharing my fears and frustrations about the school with someone in exactly the same boat (her son is slated to be in Sophia's class) made me feel so... normal.  Discussing the traffic and the heat, wondering about when to hire a housekeeper, sharing books - spending an afternoon with them made this feel less like moving to the opposite side of the world and more like something that regular people do.  She advised me to set down The Indonesia Reader, which I've been slogging my way through for months, and to pick up Twenty-Five Excursions around Jakarta.  Enough dry history - lets get excited about this city!  She also urged me to call the Admissions Office at the school and see if a live conversation will give me a better view of our options.  And they're a Music Together family, eager to evangelize for my music classes in the fall.

It will come as no surprise to my parents or my brothers that I like to talk.  I have learned over the last few years that talking truly makes me feel better.  Voicing whatever fears or angers me can relieve my stress level, like puncturing a balloon.  I call it normalizing, because people always identify with my troubles and feeling universal feels much less dramatic.  It feels normal.  But chatting about these school issues with my neighbors or my mom didn't seem to puncture my stress bubble.  Chatting with the moms at our neighborhood school about our international school problems didn't make me feel normal - if anything, it heightened the drama.  Connecting with a family in our same boat exactly was so relaxing.  Life feels normal again.

We've got another play date scheduled for our first mutual week in Jakarta.