First World Third World Fridays...and some thoughts for flavor

Greetings all,

          So I know that I promised you all a series on my recent spate of travels. It's coming I promise. But in the mean time, a recent traumatic event inspired a few deep Friday thoughts.

I’ve come to realize that living in Indonesia requires a certain degree of selective amnesia. About once a day I have to forget something in order to live here and maintain my sanity. For example, a huge hairy beast of a spider crawled from behind my bed recently. When I say huge  I mean bigger than my palm, I could actually hear it moving, huge. After a twenty minute battle and half a can of insecticide I finally killed the beast. However, in order to continue sleeping peacefully in my room let alone my bed, I have to choose to forget that this little incident ever happened. I have to fool myself into believing that the appearance of a giant mutant spider was in fact a fluke, and there is no way other spiders just as large exist anywhere in my house. Selective amnesia. I use the same coping mechanism anytime I enter a car, especially when my friend Tini is driving. Even though Tini has almost killed me multiple times by pulling out into traffic or stalling out in the middle of the highway. Or for instance when one is offered a ride in the front seat of a car whose seat belt has been removed with a driver who is falling asleep while simultaneously going 95 Km/H, it really helps to pretend that traffic accidents don’t happen in this country. No, never. Through shear force of will and positive visualization, every time is like the first time. Some may call this unhealthy…I merely call it survival of the fittest.

And with that said I bring you this week's First World/Third World......

First World Problem:  It turns out the exterminator can only come Thursday morning so I guess I have to cancel my yogalates/spin class.

Third World Problem: I have to use half a can a day of local brand bugspray with unregulated amounts of DEET. As a result all of my future children will probably be born with an extra arm.

Maaf Part Deux

Greetings all,

Once again I have to apologize for not having a juicy new post for you all. Things have gotten a bit hectic around here. In fact, this is the first week I've been at my home site for more than 4 consecutive days. I hope these photos are enough to tide you over until the vacation series begins.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2086564&id=1001040031&l=b9f144793d

Happy viewing!

Paige

Maaf

Greetings all!

So I'm popping on quickly to apologize for my recent lack of new posts. I'm currently preparing a series on my winter holiday travels that will blow your minds. Orangutans, leeches, sea storms everything a girl and an eager blog reader could ask for.

Always a Bridesmaid....

Sometimes we agree to do things without really thinking it through. Often said thing we've agreed to turns out to be an overwhelming burden that days are spent trying to wriggle out of. And then sometimes said thing is hysterically awesome. Fortunately, when I agreed to be in a woman I have never met’s  royal Bugis wedding a month ago, and then promptly forgot about it, then promptly remembered again the week the wedding was upon me, things veered toward the hysterically awesome.

After fighting my way through a monsoon I finally washed up on the front steps of Lydia, the bride’s, family home. I entered to find Lydia swimming in yards of jewel encrusted fabric while solemnly sitting in a bedazzled box as the Koran was read in front of her. I consider myself something of an Indonesian wedding expert, considering I went to two wedding parties in one night about a month ago. Due to my copious knowledge, I figured the rest of ceremony part1 would be just a solemn. Indonesians aren’t really itching to break into the electric slide and lets face it, their weddings are boozeless.

Anyways, one can imagine my surprise when I stepped back into the house to find Lydia posing for wedding photos on her white satin flower wreathed bed. This was almost too much hilarity to handle, as the photographer crawled around the bed with her to find the right poses. Continue to imagine my surprise as Lydia invited me, and the 6 other foreigners invited, to pose with her…on her bed. So onto the white satin we piled. Yet never fear, as Lydia slyly joked that mattress could handle our weight because “ it was new for the wedding night”. I almost peed on the spot.

Wedding ceremony part 2 the following day proved to be just as fruitful. Day 2 is when the groom arrives, has to step on a series of symbolic objects, reads from the Koran and then touches his bride for the first time. Because this was a “royal” wedding the groom arrived with an entourage Sean P.Dizzle Combs would have envied. Complete with slaves, symbolic slaves, but slaves nonetheless. Since Lydia had yet to lay eyes on her new groom, she asked up to text her “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” when we got a peek. Day 2 part 2 , “ the party” went off without a hitch. Like I mentioned earlier, Indonesian wedding parties aren’t exactly raucous, but much delicious food was eaten, a little karaoke was sung and many many pictures were taken.

First World Third World Fridays

First World Problem: Taxes got me this year so I don't think I can afford to fly to Bali this summer.

Third World Problem: I can't afford to leave Bali.

We can all agree that third world wins this week. Many thanks to the American government for making my recent trip to Bali possible. More on that and my wedding adventures tomorrow.

Selemat Fridays!!