Girls' Nite/Yoshie's birthday celebration/other notes

The FX Mall

There's a crazy mall in Jakarta called the FX Mall. It's where many of my students like to hang out, and now I know why! It's very stimulating, but, again, very family-friendly.

Today (Monday) is Yoshie's birthday, so she and I had a Mandy-Yoshie date there on Saturday night. She'd never been there before, and we wanted an excuse to get dressed up, so we decided a psycho-looking mall would be a perfect excuse.

(It was also the first time I've worn a skirt and heels in Indonesia...which means, since July...it was nice to feel girly again!) However, I do NOT recommend walking around an ENTIRE mall in heels, even though all the women here wear heels all the time...

I think all malls in the U.S. should be this fun!

Here's the mall. Usually, you see different colors lit up on the outside of the mall, so it looks gaudy-looking, but they're not lit up here, for some reason. When you walk inside, you see dozens and dozens of cute, little cafes, each with its own chic color scheme. The first time I ever went in there was overwhelming; I felt like I was walking into a Dr. Seuss book or something, especially after I saw the slide (below). But now, I love this mall with a passion! I like to walk around it and pretend I have money. :)



There's a huuuuuge slide that travels from the very top floor of the mall (which is like floor #8 or something) to the first floor. I've never done it yet, and Yoshie didn't want to do with with me in a skirt and heels, so we'll have to come back to do it sometime. :-P

...and here's the same shot, but without the flash. Pretty cool, huh?





We ate at a cute little cafe, overlooking downtown Jakarta. It was soooo nice to be in a city again! (I say this because the pollution wasn't heavy where we were here.)

So...we got a little click-happy with our cameras and decided to have some fun photography moments.

Since I was wearing black, here's my photo in black and white...

...and I took Yoshie's in sepia because she was wearing brown colors. (Isn't she adorable here???) :)

Here's a photo of a guy who made some fried tofu snack for Yoshie as we waited for the bus to come. (I'll eat fried tofu, even though the texture is kinda creepy, but I never buy anything from street vendors. My stomach has been through enough shock.)

Other notes....

*Next week is our week-long quarter 3 break. (!!!) I'm going to Singapore this Saturday to visit two college friends there, so I'll be gone from Sat.-Wed. I'm excited to get out of Indonesia for a little while (even though I DID go to India in November). I'll post about my trip as soon as I can.

*This week is a crazy week. Grade 7 students are going on a field trip to Bali; grade 8 to Perth, Australia; grade 9 to Medan (on another island); and grade 10 gets to stay here for various testing programs, since not enough students signed up for the field trip to Cambodia. (I forget where grade 11 students are, but grade 12 students are also testing out the wazoo this week.) Hopefully, I'll be asked to chaperone a field trip next year!

Today, the grade 10 students, as well as any grade 8 ones who couldn't go on the field trip, are learning how to make compost soil. Poor kids. Hopefully, it will help them in the future somehow...? Meanwhile, I'm taking advantage of having virtually no classes this week by catching up on some grading and lesson planning. And writing on my blog.

*I received a beautiful-looking note in my school mailbox this morning. It was written in Bahasa, so I asked a secretary to tell me what it was. It was...an invitation...for a circumcision. I am soooo not kidding. It's for the son of an employee here. Apparently, they celebrate this kind of a thing, in some cultures here. Ohhhh myyy...

THANKFULLY, I can't go to it because it's this Saturday, when I leave for Singapore.

I am, however, keeping the invitation, mainly because it's a keepsake event, but also because it's beautiful.