MY BUSY AND SOCIAL AND FUN WEEKEND

MY BUSY AND SOCIAL AND FUN WEEKEND

It started on Friday evening. Gina’s family came from America, and they invited me and all the team to have dinner at the Korean barbeque restaurant. It was the second time I went there, and I just loved the food, including the bulgogi (note that I don’t usually eat beef, but this place is exceptional). I usually get nervous of being the only non-American, but I really enjoyed meeting Gina’s parents and the two other ‘gopher’ girls (i.e. her two pretty younger sisters, Betsy and Sally – btw I am still confused who is who). They were planning to go to Yogyakarta on Saturday morning, but I guess it was cancelled due to the earthquake.

Saturday morning, I went shopping and cooked my favorite broccoli chicken soup, served with buttered baguette. I shared it with some roommates and also Helen, and found out that she used to knit. In fact, she now is using a cool knitted blanket that she made her own. I told her about my hobby to crochet, and gave her a crocheted choker. She looked so thrilled to receive that. In the evening I started to work on a short story to be submitted for an annual contest. Still a long long way to go, but at least I have started. Then I stayed up late watching American Idol finale, and was glad that Katharine McPhee didn’t win. I used to like her and dislike Taylor, but he proved himself to be the best and I’m glad he won. It was such a spectacular show with lots of famous guests, including Dionne Worwick and Al Jarreau.

I woke up on Sunday morning earlier than I wanted to, because I had to work. Time is almost up and we still need more people to be tested. We went to a slum area in northern Jakarta, and as I gazed around, I realized the gap between that area with south Jakarta where I live, where everything looks nicer, cleaner, and of course, more pricey.

I had to skip lunch to be able to make it to Janet’s bridal shower afterwards. It was my first experience attending a bridal shower, and I liked it a lot. It was so much fun to shower a bride-to-be with love, attention, prayers and gifts. Janet got lots of sweetly wrapped gifts from the women (mostly lingerie for her honeymoon), and we had fun eating snacks and playing games, including a fiercely competitive toilet-paper dress-making competition. I just loved it! My team put layers and layers of TP on Kristina, trying our best to be creative and artistic, and we won!
I told Sandra, who organized it, that I would want one if I were getting married. She said it’s a western tradition and probably I have to get a western husband if I want one. Too bad Indonesians don’t do that. And when I get married later, I think all of my American friends will not be around anymore. Sigh!