"Once upon a time there was a little girl named Goldilocks. She went for a walk in the forest. Pretty soon, she came upon a house, she knocked, and when no one answered, she walked right in…."

House Hunting in Jakarta:

House hunting in Jakarta was another adventure. Typical housing for students in Jakarta is called a Kos. A Kos is not something that we have in Australia but they can most accurately be described as a mixture between a hostel and a boarding house. Unlike apartments and hostels in other parts of the world, Kos' aren't advertised on the Internet. You need to walk around looking for housing in person and pray to the Indonesian gods that you find what you're looking for.

I will be spending my first 2 weeks in Jakarta attending language classes at a local University and the rest of the time on work placements at a local News and Current Affairs program. I will be working in the same building as another intern from Melbourne named Emma.

Today Emma and I went house hunting. As of tomorrow morning we are being kicked out of our comfortable hotel with its fluffy pillows and will begin life living out amongst the locals.

After getting together to decide what the basic accommodation necessities are, Emma and I decided upon Wi-Fi, individual rooms with own private ensuite, shower, toilet (for any boys reading this, the toilet is just for decoration… we all know that girls don't actually go to the toilet, they merely visit the restrooms to "powder their nose"), hot water, electricity, aircon and a fridge. We girls don't ask for much!
The house hunting in Indonesia process is quite straightforward; find an area that you would like to live in and start knocking on the doors of buildings asking if they are a Kos and if they have a spare room. If the house is not a Kos or is already full you merely walk a block and approach the next building that looks as though it could potentially have student housing. For me this was a crazy experience and an opportunity to fully immerse myself in the Indonesian culture, whether I wanted to or not! Many of the Kos owners did not speak or understand English, so Emma and I had to default to our Indonesian language skills to discuss facilities, prices and availability of rooms.

The first Kos that we visited looked promising, however when I lifted the bed sheet to find a nest of cockroaches in the bed we said "thanks but no thanks" and swiftly departed. We spent the morning walking around the Menteng area coming across Kos' with drop toilets, yoga mats for beds and rooms resembling rape dungeons.

Finally we happened across a Kos that I would more readily call a resort! The Kos not only had all the basic necessities that we had decided upon, it also had a swimming pool, rooftop garden, house-keeping and breakfast included: winning!! Feeling like Goldilocks after trying the baby bears porridge I knew that this Kos was "just right". Unfortunately with such luxury came an equally extravagant price tag! We knew that we would be living beyond our means to stay in this Kos for the entire 6-week period, so we booked in for the last four weeks of our stay in Jakarta and set off in search of a cheaper Kos, closer to our university for the first 2 weeks. We made this decision at 12pm, just as the middle of the day heat started to kick in. 7 hours later, after walking hundreds of blocks and knocking on almost as many doors, we found a house that ticked all the boxes and was available for a great price. We found a place that we are happy to call home for the next two weeks.

A ride back to our hotel on the back of our new Kos mum's motor bike was the icing on the cake of what was a long, exhausting and yet successful day.