When in Indonesia...

No great breakthroughs or grand adventures this week, but still, there were some blog-worthy moments.

Tuesday night, for instance, one of my classes invited me and some of the other teachers out for karaoke. Karaoke, it should be mentioned, is like the national sport here in Indonesia. Indonesians do karaoke like we go bowling. Now, I don't mind singing in church, my car, or my apartment, but under no circumstances should that singing be singled out and magnified via a microphone. And, for those of you who know me well, I don't handle embarrassment well...at all. So, naturally I agreed to join my students for a night of what promised to be pure hell. When in Indonesia...

On the way to karaoke bar, I tried to down play the situation. We'll be in a big place. You'll only have to watch. Maybe you can sing with a group!. Oh, silly Jackie. After greeting several of my students who were waiting at the door, we were ushered up three flights of stairs to our very own, private room about the size of my living room. There was a long couch along three of the walls, two computer screens for selecting songs, three microphones, and one large flat-screen TV displaying the music videos and words on the opposite wall. There goes wishful thinking number one. Wishful thinking number two and three were not long for life either.

I tried my very hardest to blend in with the couch, but inevitably, one of my students would ask me for a song title or artist. When I came up empty, they began choosing English songs for me. Scene: The music starts. Over the speaker, "Miss Jackie, I picked this song special for you." Someone shoves a microphone in my face. Oh dear Lord. Wait, what ...is this My Way? Stand up. Here we go. Sometimes they would have mercy and sing with me...but occasionally, they would all stop singing mid-verse and send me careening head first into a shaky solo. At least the lights were out so you couldn't see my tomato-red face with sweat pouring down. But wait, it gets worse. After barely surviving Frankie, the songs only go more obscure. "Oh, Carol" was another song selected especially for me. Anyone? Oh, Carol? No, I didn't think so. I felt like I was letting down the whole class. I know it's in English, but I swear I've never heard of this song!!

AND...there's more. Often, the English songs did not have the proper music videos (for copyright reasons, I'm sure), so there would be random scenes from nature or perhaps a cheesy film of a man and woman leaping slow motion through a field. I'm not joking. The best (or worst) was during the song "Hero." To accompany this very inspiring song, there was a busty, glistening blonde donning an orange string bikini, lying on the beach rubbing herself in the most provocative manner possible. Let me remind you that I'm the only American female sitting in a very small room full of mostly Muslim police men. Blush. Luckily, I only have to go through three more classes of this. ...

There were some bright spots during the weekend. I was invited to my very first wedding ceremony. One of the Mandarin teachers got married earlier this month in Sumatra, but she and her family held a western reception of sorts for her friends and colleagues in Jakarta. On Friday, S'oegma and Vero, two of my colleagues from Sebasa, took me shopping for a nice batik shirt for the wedding. I went a little crazy, but they are so beautiful. Also, Indonesian's have batik Fridays like we have casual Fridays, so I justified my little shopping spree by wanting to be culturally appropriate. I also attempted to buy a new pair of dress shoes, which was a complete failure since the mall next to my apartment doesn't carry "giant" sized shoes. (I used to complain about being a size 10 in America...being a size 41 in Indonesia is far worse.)

Ibu Ani, Ibu Iin, me, Ibu Niken, Ibu Unaeny - all fellow teachers at Sebasa. I'm wearing heels, I swear.

To wrap things up, I got to join Miranda to her church on Sunday. She attends a massive church that holds services in Bahasa Indonesian, Mandarin, and English. The highlight was a goose-bump good performance by the youth choir. I'll be going back ;). We met up with Hilda and her sisters for lunch afterward at an amazing Vietnamese restaurant, where I ate chicken out of a halved pineapple and to-die-for, warm banana crepes with ice creme. I love happy endings. ;)

Okay, I should have taken this picture before I started eating, but it was too good to wait!! Oh, and my chop sticks skills are getting amazing. Just sayin'.