7/30

Ok, so it's weekend recap time.

So Saturday after class, Meg and I went to Citos for lunch and internet. We had lunch at Mother's Cook, a burger place. They always have really good food, and they put onions in the burgers for a little extra zing. The Simpsons Movie is out, but it wasn't playing at Citos yet... Then we went to the Mr. Bean coffee shop, as usual. I called home with Skype, so it was nice to chat with the folks. You have to buy an internet voucher to use the wi-fi, but for Rp. 100,000 (about $11) you get 8 hours.

So at around 7, we get the call from Chrys to go out, we wrap things up and get in the cab. We pick her up at her place, then stop at my place to drop off the computers. Chrys was wearing some new, very high heels, which broke right when she got in the cab. I found a safety pin to hold them together for the night. Then, we had to walk up the hill to get a new cab. Traffic was awful in both directions, and it took us about 15 minutes to get a taxi. After driving about 10 minutes, Meg realizes that she forgot her wallet. Well, we weren't about to turn back, so Chrys said she'd cover her.

The first place we went to was the Autumn Cafe, a wine bar with a band. We got a couple pitchers of beer, the girls had the Autumn salad, and I had the Spaghetti Carbonara. It's wasn't bad, but they use smoked beef here instead of bacon, which makes me sad. On my last bite, I fumbled and sent the contents of my spoon flying everywhere, some landing on Chrys. A few minutes later, she responded with a volley of mesclun, completely by accident, I'm sure. She later sang (or mumbled) karaoke to some song that she didn't know the words to, and of which Meg has some rather embarrassing footage. Around midnite we hopped a cab to Public, a club.

They were playing techno, quite loudly, we had a lot of beer, and some of Chrys and Meg's Indonesian friends stopped by. Worth mentioning are the bathrooms, which are surrounded by mirrors. Can make you self-conscious... So around 3-ish, lights come on, music dies down, and we shtumble out there. Chrys lost her safety pin, so she walked barefoot.

We got to my place at what must have been 4:30am, because morning prayers were blaring over the loudspeakers. For the next 3 hours we sat on the couch and watched That 70's Show on DVD. Meg fell asleep at some point and was snoring rather loudly. Chrys left at around 8am, as she had some horse-riding competition at 10 and a race at 2. Good luck, right??

I went to bed, woke up at about 2pm, er, and then for real at about 3:30, and went to meet Felix at Margo. He was reading some Clive Cussler book in Starbucks. I had some Japanese fast food at the food court.

(Begin rant)

Ok, here's how an Indonesian food court works. There's about 15 or so places to choose from, all lined up on the back wall. You place your food order at the window, and they give you a ticket. If you want a drink, you have to go to one of the drink islands in the middle of the food court. And you get a ticket from them. You take your tickets to the cashier at the other end of the food court and pay. Then you wait for the people to bring you your separate food and drink orders. If you want another drink, you have to go back to the island, get a ticket for the drink you want, bring it to the cashier, pay for it, and bring the ticket back to the island. It is so stupid.

It's the same way for department stores. You cannot take a shirt out of the department and walk around the store with it. When you see a shirt you like, you can try it on in the dressing room, but then you have to give it back to them. If you want to buy it, they give you a ticket and bring your item to the cashier, and you pay for it there.

(End rant)

Ok, so that was pretty much my weekend, and, it seems, every weekend. I haven't gotten bored of it, but it is becoming a financial drain. Well, I gotta get to class, so I'll post again some other time. Thanks for reading!

--jared