Friday I woke up early, TOO EARLY, and got ready to cram for our Bahasa test. Our awesome teacher Kristin let us sneak out of class one by one to fuel our brains with the free coffee on offer down the hall. True to my style, I opened the wrong door onto a bewildered and annoyed looking man, possibly in a classroom full of other bewilderbeasts, and left hurriedly, but not before confusedly saying makasi (thanks!) instead of maaf (sorry!). Brilliant.
The test went pretty well, I think. I tried some flashy tricks but considering the limitations of my Bahasa, that may not have been the best idea. The last 'translate this' sentence was, 'Kami akan ingat kalian' - We will remember all of you. Awwww. So sweet.
ACICIS hosted us lunch, which was delicious, and people swapped answers, as inevitably and universally happens after tests. "What does menikah mean? I wrote fried?" "It means married bro." "Bugger...". Then we headed in for a conference with our project leader, Sunny, to bounce ideas off her and check on vital dates/key points/last minute questions. We had a bit of a complain about the Unilever production and then happily spilled out into the city early, to go shopping for the projected Thousand Islands trip the next day. I bought two pairs of new shoes for 70,000 rupiah (approx $10) and while one pair is far too small, I'm going to cram my feet into them until they stretch because they're beautiful! All red and white stripes and bows, like a 1940s beach ad. I also bought a singlet top because I've been CRAVING beachy/summery/light clothes since I got here. I also also got beer (more on this later).
After we'd caught up on emails etc Helena and I left for Face bar, and met up with our fellow journos there. We all ascertained there was no gossip to be had in our group after the guy I'd kind of thought was the most professional one of the lot of us sat the group down and said "Right, who's got gossip?" It was hilarious and a great way to get to know everyone better - and also, gossip is fully what journalism revolves around.
After this, Helena and I left to go to karaoke, which was meant to be a farewell for Michelle, who was leaving to the South of Jakarta to do her practicum with Cifor, the forestry group here in Indonesia - very high profile, I think. Unfortunately, when we got there, our head LO Fikrik (he of the amazing voice) said the place was booked until 10pm, so Helena, Fikrik's friend Ricky, Gina and later the LO Debbie and I played pool for an hour or so to fill in time. We were alternately awesome (I sank two in a row twice!) and terrible (everyone popped the white off the table except ME! But I made plenty of other horrific shots). Then it was karaoke time and luckily about 7 others from the class turned up (keeping costs down since '87). Fikrik had booked the VIP suite which had its own freaking bathroom, and we were off! Cut to 3 hours later, when we finally made it home with no voice left and I was full of Sangria, having rashly split a jug with Michelle.
Four hours after I put my head to the pillow, I was up to catch the 5:45am taxi to the port for our Thousand Islands adventure. Unfortunately, probably from a combination of drinking, not enough sleep all week and maybe a touch of the flu, I started fainting whilst trying to get cash out of the ATM. I made it to the taxi but spent the entire 30 minutes with my head between my legs or out the window, unable to talk to the others, because my mouth had gone numb and tasted minty (?!). I broke out in cold sweats, which was pretty awful and my stomach started cramping - so pretty much one of the worst taxi rides ever. So when we pulled up to the port, complete with streets and streets lined with fish being gutted, I kind of decided I wasn't going to make the boat ride and the others got out while I lay down on the back seat and asked the driver to "kembali ke Benhil" (return to Benhil). There was a heart stopping moment where he seemed to be telling me to find another taxi (Lady, I LIKE hanging out in Fish Central!) but luckily he took me home, and I passed out until about 4pm, waking up every so often to text concerned Ozzies (very nice of them) and concerned Helenas (very lovely of her) before zonking out again.
So not wonderful, but when I got up I felt much better and was even hungry! I decided I wanted to do SOMETHING and get out of the house, so I taxied to this Japanese restaurant one of the girls had been talking about. It was nice to get out, but the restaurant wasn't particularly great and the taxi was insanely expensive, due to the macet (traffic jams) that are a constant fixture in Jakarta. So I returned home to sleep some more, and get up this morning (late, naturally) with the determination to a) catch an ojek (motorbike ride) and b) buy a dictaphone.
Walking down the street, I was a little nervous - the ojek drivers are quite aggressive, but there didn't seem to be any now (of course). I knew there was a huge group on the corner of my road, because they always mob me when I walk to Uni, and I didn't really want to walk into the middle of them and say, "Ojek!" I was afraid I might be crushed. Luckily (or maybe not) a driver on the other side of the road caught my eye and scooted over. I say maybe not, because he fully ripped me off but I put the spare helmet on (the strap was broken - sorry Mum and Dad) and clambered onto the back, and we were OFF. And it was BRILLIANT! I cannot recommend ojek as the way to get around more. It's quicker, since they can weave in between traffic, it's FUN, because you're hanging on perilously and whizzing past things and bobbing and turning, and the drivers are actually very good, having grown up driving in Jakarta - they are careful to drive slowly for you and they adjust to Western women's rather larger weight (I think I weighed about 15kg more than my driver. Sigh).
A cool 10-15 minutes later (it took us 30 by taxi for three times as much) we arrived at Ambasdur Mall and I went to look for some lunch and a dictaphone. I sneakily bought Blade 3 (oh Wesley!) and Prince of Persia (oh Jake! Plus, you can fully pick the moves as the movie progresses - see how he's jumping up the wall, bouncing on the barrel and swinging to the parapet? X, X, O, Square, L2 X) and then headed to Pizza Hut (I knowww but I've been craving pizza for a while) and pigged out on the TINIEST pizza I've ever seen - slightly bigger than a CD (meant to be for 2 people, I ask you!), garlic bread and a coke. After successful usage of a squat toilet, which are very good for your legs and quite easy to use (did you want to know that?!) I hunted high and low for a reasonably priced dictaphone. The cheapest was 800 000 rupiah, which is about $100, COME ON! Indonesia is meant to be the land of cheap electronics! Anyway just as I was about to buy the expensive piece of metal and plastic, I found a little sneaky electronics shop which I suspect is a second hand/fell off the back of the truck type deal, who sold me an MP3 player that doubles as a recorder for 220,000 rupiah, with a one week guarantee (so trustworthy!) So we'll see how my budgetness goes.
Then it was time to buy some groceries, hand out apples to children begging on the street (one of whom had a monkey on a chain, sigh) who said "Thank youuuu" and then ojek home, for which I was still ripped off, but less so than before. The driver took me through the back streets of Benhil, which looked very poor - thin wooden shacks by the very dirty river, dirt instead of roads or pavements, cats everywhere. But it also looked quite nice, and not like it was the desperate end of poor - everyone was sitting around talking to each other, or playing in the courtyards, or sitting by a big tub filled with goldfish. It was nice.
Back at the kos, the others had returned, so we swapped stories (the island sounded lovely but I don't think I would have survived the boat ride by the sounds of it) and I tidied my room. Tonight, the goal is to find dinner and then prepare for tomorrow, when we start work proper and find out all about being a journalist in Jakarta. Wish me luck!
LESSONS LEARNT 15, 16 & 17:
- Don't stay out late when you have a big day the next day, and feel slightly off colour anyway!
- Ojeks are the only way to travel
- A working helmet is probably a good plan
- Sleep cures all ills
- Bargaining is always a good plan
- Health is just as important as old people say it is - I need to go for a run!
Aw Alex, I didn't realise you were so sick! That sounds crap and I'm glad you felt better later. Sounds like a day of sleep did you good!
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