Of course something is up. The elephant in the room here which caused my return is of course coronavirus.
On March 20 I just fled the country. Before all this, I found myself in a completely different world. A world where mornings were the only part of the day one could still stand the heat, a world of cheap delicious well-seasoned food and a world where traffic rules were non-existent.

From the moment I arrived at Jakarta I noticed something that kept one being noticeable throughout my stay in Indonesia. The never-ending friendliness of the Indonesian people. Although in the Netherlands you would receive directions upon asking them, in Indonesia people are happy to spend their time walking with you to show you your way. Quite a few helping hands and a long bus took me to the chaotic street where my apartment should be. Sometimes some pavement to walk on exists, but mostly the busy streets are the way to go. Even when there is pavement, you have to be careful not to step in a hole, through which you can see the sewers. This traffic adventure through a swarm of scooters (which sometimes even go against the flow of traffic), brings me to my new home.

With the passing of days also lots of new impressions passed. From the tropical overgrowth on campus, to beggars on the street. From the not-so-strict time schedule (called “jam karet” meaning “rubber/elastic time”) to the mosque calling for prayers five times a day, even at 4 am.

From a Dutch perspective all of this seems of course very different and quite chaotic. Yet I cannot but say that after a few weeks I was in love with this country, its people and the completely different way of business there. After I found a piano I could play, I couldn’t be more content to be there.

Ooh and of course, studying. The reason I came to Indonesia in the first place. Even this was going well and I was learning more than I’d expected. Slowly however, something began to stir behind the curtains of a numinous global play.

When my girlfriend Nienke came to visit me, nothing was wrong yet. We planned to make a small trip in so far as my studies allowed this. One of our stops was Karimunjawa, which has to be the most romantic island ever. In our time there, it seemed there was not a care in the world.
On Sunday March 15, we began to see the effects of events which had been cascading for months at that time. The mail of the international office of ESA read in bold:
“For TU/e students already abroad for exchange or internship, no matter in what country: we urgently appeal you to consider returning to the Netherlands when possible.”

From then on, the game was on and both of us were no longer mere spectators of an absurd global play, but were sucked in and forced to participate with a small role in a global adventure. Monday, my train went from mid-Java back to Jakarta, West-Java. Nienke flew to her beloved Bali, to make a journey by herself. In that 9 hour train, I realized that whatever I decided, I should decide sooner rather than later. It would be getting harder and harder to get back home if I wanted to.

So I decided to make a decision within two days. Most people thought I should go home. TU/e and my guest university agreed on that. In contrast, I myself leaned towards staying rather than going; I was young, healthy and up for an adventure. Therefore, on Tuesday evening I decided to stay. When I woke up on Wednesday morning, other thoughts got the overhand. It was unclear whether my travel insurance would still cover and thus I decided, with a heavy heart, to return back home.

The return was however, not without its perils. Upon booking, flight ticket upon flight ticket got sold out. Eventually I ended up booking a flight which would stop in Hong Kong and Londen, before landing in Amsterdam. It was then that I found out that Hong Kong is awfully close to a Chinese city which was until recently not known by many: Wuhan. I even found out that the Dutch government had issued a fly ban on all incoming flights from Hong Kong and at this moment I though “KUT!” (swear words are hard to translate). Fortunately this did not turn out to be a problem due to the stop in London and after a journey of 38 hours I landed safely at Schiphol airport.

In this way I arrived in the Netherlands on the first day of spring after a shorter-than-planned, though not less intense adventure. While the streets run quiet in these times, nature with her green buds and singing birds awakens all the more louder.