Mandy's Musings: Part 1

So I'm procrastinating lesson planning for a few minutes and feel like writing a random post instead...
Yesterday, I went into Jakarta with Eric and Christine a few hours before church so they could do some shopping for house decor. I needed stuff, too, but I didn't get much because we went to some expensive stores. (Interestingly, the prices are probably the same as some stores in the U.S., but we're so used to things being so much cheaper that it now seems too expensive for us. However, this mind-set could financially benefit me in the long run, so it's ok!)

Eric insisted we go to this world-famous coffee shop that he'd heard about, so we did. And... guess what I'm drinking here...I was insanely crazy and tried a cup of the coffee that's "passed through" the kopi luwak animal that I wrote about in August.
I did this only because:
A. I really was intrigued
B. I really am crazy
C. It was only $5 a cup and not $75 like at that mall in Jakarta
D. All of the above
(The answer is D.)
Anyways, Eric sipped from my cup and said he loved it. Personally, it did nothing for me. It really wasn't that great at all. It was just another cup of black coffee that I had to dump tons of cream and sugar into. Give me a calorie-laden Starbucks frappuccino any day!
p.s. I know that here I look like I have 2 black eyes. I don't. It was just a no-make-up day for me because of the heat.


Here's one of my good friends named Yoshie. (Her real name is Josephine, but Yoshie's definitely more fun to say.) This pic is us from Indonesia Day last month. She's one of the dorm supervisors at the school, and she stayed with me for the weekend of our Idul Fitri break because the dorm closed for the week. That was fine with me because I hate living by myself. (Samini and Alia had the week off for the holiday, so they went out of town.) Yoshie's been a huge help to me! Over that weekend, she volunteered to cook us lunch since she never gets to cook and I'm afraid of my gas oven; she actually WANTED to help me paint inside my house (I didn't FORCE her to help me); and she took me to the police station to get a written statement to take to the bank so I could get a new account because my ATM card got eaten in one of the machines at the mall. That was an interesting ordeal...but everything's settled and secure now, thanks to her. :)


These are 2 more of my girlfriends that sometimes spend the night with me on the weekends after church on Saturday night. Fera, in the yellow, teaches science at school, and Detty, in the white, teaches English. They're both from a town called Jogja, which is somewhere in eastern Java (we're in southwest Java somewhere). They want me to come visit their town for a few days over Christmas break, so I probably will, because the airfare to do that is incredibly cheap, like $45/one-way. Score!

Random musings:
*Tonight, I went to an A&W root beer restaurant for supper. I ordered chicken with rice and a root beer float, and I think my order was only $2.50 or something. It was so yummy. The cheapness here still amazes me!
*People will spit all the time outside. Get used to it.
*Watch your step at ALL times, for hundreds of reasons.
*Never stand in front of people, or animals, that spit.
*Big ants, cockroaches, gross cats with half-tails, rats, small ants, body and vehicle bomb inspections, body odor, squatty potties, and ants are just a part of life in Indonesia. Life would be a little easier without them, but they exist, so you just go with the flow.
*When you're in a public restroom, you're supposed to stand in front of the stall that you want.
*When you're in a public restroom, ALWAYS be sure you have some tissue on you. Otherwise...yeah...
*When you know you're being stared at by adults, if you stare right back at them with a horrified look on your face, they'll quickly look away. I've just discovered this on my own. (I don't mind if kids stare at me or if adults look at me for a few seconds to try to figure me out, so this tactic applies only for the obnoxious adults who think I'm a freak show.) When I was standing in line at the store, I could feel this older guy analyzing me and my groceries. This gets annoying after about 8 seconds. So, all of a sudden, I looked right back at HIM like HE had a problem, and I started analyzing him and his groceries. He kept looking at me, but eventually he looked away because he felt uncomfortable, I guess. Serves him right.
*As far as food is concerned, no food has made me sick here yet, but I have learned which spicy foods I should avoid like the plague. My stomach adjusted within a week when I got here, which was great. I'm not sick of any sort of Indonesian food-not even white rice-and I don't really crave anything. All kinds of chain restaurants are close by: Mexican restaurants, Pizza Hut, KFC, McDonald's, etc. I do, however, miss drinking 2 % milk, since the milk here isn't real and so I don't drink that much of it.
I should get back to lesson planning now. I'll continue to work on my house this week, hopefully!