My confessions

Time is just flying by!  I realized yesterday that I left my house in NC 2 weeks ago.  It's been really nice keeping up with people from home.  It's a totally different world over here and having that nice link back to the familiarity of home is wonderful.

Our project is going well so far.  We met with leaders from several of the local Tourism-related agencies here in Jogja yesterday and brainstormed some recommendations for improvements.  Our days are just flying by.

Yuan Yuan, Nicole & Daniel - us hard at work at our client office

To help us with our recommendations, we've been spending some time visiting several of the local Tourist Information centers. We stopped by the train station yesterday pretending to be tourists (I guess we are, in a way...) to see what type of information we could get.  The information was really sparse and we basically learned that the train schedules aren't schedules, just general times of when you may or may not see the train come.  This is what's known as "rubber time" or "Indonesia time."

My team trying to get information at the train station

Now that I've had 2 weeks to reflect on my time here thusfar, I have a few confessions to make!

1) Our hotel gives us 2 bottles of water each day.  I must admit that I hoard these bottles in my suitcase and refrigerator so they will leave me 2 more bottles the next day.  I buy some as well, but it is so ridiculously hot & humid here that I always like to have lots of water.

2) I love having my laundry done for me for $1.50 a week.  We send it out to a local cleaning service and they return it in great condition, with my underwear even folded in little squares.  If only I could find such a cheap convenient service back at home, I'd be all set.  I really hate doing laundry.

3) I am getting sick of rice & noodles.  I never thought I'd say that.   I do love both, but when they are for breakfast, lunch & dinner it gets to be a bit much.  I've eaten a lot of other things as well, but it all seems to come back to rice and noodles, rice and noodles, rice and noodles.

4) I am afraid to take advantage of the inexpensive massages here at the hotel spa.  Several of my teammates have gone for one and the reaction has been mixed.  About 2/3 of the folks who have gone are almost crippled with pain the next day because even when they tell the masseuse to go softly the masseuse basically stands on the massage table pushing down on their back. 

5) I am DEFINITELY afraid of the street food here.  The hygiene of the utensils turns your stomach.  We've passed many food stalls and while the concept is great for a quick and cheap meal if I intend to stay out of the hospital I am going to surely pass.  Nicole & I almost threw up yesterday just walking past one of the stalls on our way to the train station.


On a different note, I didn't bring my wedding ring or engagement ring over here, for obvious reasons.  Instead, I bought a "fake wedding ring" that was supposed to be silver.  Apparently, it turned out to be nickel, and I know I'm allergic to nickel.  Now instead of wearing my fake wedding ring I am "wearing" a nice allergic ring of red bumps where my wedding ring should be.  Watch out Indonesian men, here I come!  Just kidding....  I love you Marc!