Living in a small town

Since our arrival, people here have been anxious to know how we like living in Salatiga. Our reply has been and continues to be that we like living in Salatiga. A typical comment to our reply is that Salatiga is a nice small town.
Now I recognize that one's perspective is almost everything, however I'm not to the point where I would call Salatiga small. Our previous two homes were in nice small communities; Communities of two thousand or less. Salatiga is a community of roughly 176,000 with the population swelling to close to 250,000 as people travel into town for the day.

The picture to right was taken at the north end of the downtown area looking south. Shops line both sides of the street and continuing south about a half a mile. Behind the shops lie more shops and vendors, each happy to sell you something.

The challenge of shopping here is that you may visit 4-6 different shops to get the little bag of stuff that you will carry home. For instance, I purchased a light bulb and extension cord at one shop, brought bread and a few groceries at another, purchased canned goods and soy sauce at another, fabric at another, hooks for hanging things in Dana's classroom, some charcoal tablets (for an upset stomach that I've been trying to calm for a week) and a few plastic baskets at yet another shop.

Mind you, none of these stops is quick. In shops here you must either hunt for things or try to explain what you are looking for to the shop keeper. In some stores, once you have found what you are looking for you must take it to a desk where someone hand writes a ticket for you. Then you take the ticket, to a cashier and pay for the items you want. In the mean time, someone has brought your items to the cashier. Upon payment, the cashier gives you the "stuff" you purchased. Shopping in Salatiga is certainly a different experience than at Super Wal-Mart in the states!

The pictures of house tops was taken from the top floor of a hotel in Salatiga. Like in large cities, people here build up not out. In fact as you look across the house tops you will notice very few green spaces. Trees grow along the sidewalks and streets. There are a few green spaces but nothing like what we've been accustom to living in the rural Midwest.

I find the constant flow of people and traffic somewhat exhausting so I'm always thankful to get back to our community and home which is less than a mile from downtown. I'll take the roosters crowing, goats bleating and cows lowing over the hustle and bustle of downtown.
Can you see our house? Let me know if you can, because I can't. I think our neighborhood is located somewhere left of the six tall trees on the right of the picture. Blessings, Jeff