Tag Archives: Bogor

When I first started studying at Kyoto University, my friend introduced me to the magic that is Mister Donut (later known affectionately as Donut-san) in Japan.  The donuts aren’t very good.  The shops are a bit old and sometimes kind of grimy.  The coffee is average, at best… but, they offer free refills!  For a student without regular income, that was a major benefit.  So, I spent a fair amount of time at the local Mister Donut at Imadegawa Street.  They always played their own “radio” station with an American, deep-voiced DJ playing mostly American pop.  They had one Japanese song that got played every 30 minutes by a band called Dreams Come True.  It became the theme song for my first few trips to Kyoto and the theme for this post.  You can listen to the song here.  Its catchy.

After several years of working on my PhD, I felt that I was losing my edge and connections professionally and started looking for a job.  In 2015 and 2016 I applied for jobs in (among others) the Maldives, Papua New Guinea, Singapore, Tunisia, and New York.  It was my first experience with getting rejected for jobs that I thought I was qualified for.  A humbling experience.  But the waiting paid off and I was fortunate this year to get a job with the Wildlife Conservation Society in Indonesia.

Fareea (the most important part of Dreams Come True for me this year and that post will follow but I don’t have the photos with me now!) and I moved to Bogor, Indonesia 2 weeks ago so I could start my new job as Senior Marine Advisor.  Many people have noticed that Bogor is not near the sea and asked how can I do marine work here.

Its easy.  We have lots of projects and programmes all over Indonesia and the head office just happens to be here.  Its nice here.  Bogor is 265 meters above sea level and therefore much cooler than lowland Jakarta and other areas of Indonesia.  Its lush, green, busy, and lovely.  I think we will be very happy here.

So…. what you’ve been waiting for.  Some photos from our first few weeks.

We are spending our first few weeks in the WCS guest house.  We are hoping to take over the lease at the end of the year, but remains to be finalized.